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THE 



BOOK OF THE SWORD 



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LONDOK : PRINTED BY 

(tfOmSWOODB AND CO., NBW-STRBBT SQUARS 

AND fASUAMBNT STREST 



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THE 



BOOK OF THE SWORD 



BY 



RICHARD F. BURTON 

MaItRE D'ARMES (BREVETE) 




WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS 



CHATTO AND WINDUS, PICCADILLY 

1884 



\A // ;• / ^"7/ ts reservcd\ 



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*He that hath no Sword (-knife = /Liaxaifia), let him sell his 
garment and buy one.' St Lulu xxil 36. 

^ Solo la spada vuol magnificarsi,^ 

(Nothing is high and awful save the Sword.) 

Lod, deUa Fernacaa, a.d. 120a 

*But, above all, it is most conducive to the greatness of 
empire for a nation to profess the skill of arms as its principal 
glory and most honourable employ/ 

Bacon's Advancement of Learnings viii. 3, 

*The voice of every people is the Sword 
That guards them, or the Sword that beats them down.' 

Tennyson's Harold, 



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TO 


THE MEMORY 


OF 


MY OLD AND DEAR COLLEGE FRIEND 


ALFRED BATE RICHARDS 


WHO 


IN YEARS GONE BY 


ACCEPTED THE DEDICATION OF THESE PAGES 



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FOREWORD. 

' I WANTED a book on the Sword, not a treatise on Carte and Tierce,' said the 
Publisher, when, some years ago, my earliest manuscript was sent to him. 

It struck me then and there that the Publisher was right. Consequently the 
volume was re-written after a more general and less professional fashion. 

I have only one wish that reader and reviewer can grant : namely, a fair field 
and no favour for certain * advanced views * of Egyptology. It is my conviction 
that this study, still in its infancy, will greatly modify almost all our preconceived 
views of archaeological history. 

RICHARD F. BURTON. 

Trieste: November 20, 1883. 



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INTRODUCTION. 



The history of the Sword is the history of humanity. The ' White Arm ' means 
something more than the * oldest, the most universal, the most varied of weapons, 
the only one which has lived through all time.' 

He, she, or it — for the gender of the Sword varies — has been worshipped with 
priestly sacrifices as a present god. Hebrew revelation represents the sharp and two- 
edged Sword going out of the mouth of the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. We 
read of a * Sword of God, a holy Sword,' the * Sword of the Lord and of Gideon ' ; and 
' I came not to send peace but a Sword, 'meaning the warfare and martyrdom of man. 

On a lower plane the Sword became the invention and the favourite arm of the 
gods and the demi-gods : a gift of magic, one of the treasures sent down from 
Heaven, which made Mulciber (* Malik Kabfr,' the great king) divine, and Voelunder, 
Quida, Galant, or Wayland Smith a hero. It was consecrated to the deities, and was 
stored in the Temple and in the Church. It was the * key of heaven and hell ' : 
the saying is, * If there were no Sword, there would be no law of Mohammed ' ; 
and the Moslem brave's highest title was * Sayf UUah ' — Sword of Allah. 

Uniformly and persistently personal, the Sword became no longer an abstrac- 
tion but a Personage, endowed with human as well as superhuman qualities. He 
was a sentient being who spoke, and sang, and joyed, and grieved. Identified with 
his wearer he was an object of affection, and was pompously named as a well- 
beloved son and heir. To surrender the Sword was submission ; to break the 
Sword was degradation. To kiss the Sword was, and in places still is, the highest 
form of oath and homage. 

Lay on our royal Sword your banished hands 
says King Richard II. So Walther of Aquitaine : — 

Contra Orientalem prostratus corpora partem 
Ac nudum retinens ensem hac cum voce precatur. 

The Sword killed and cured ; the hero when hopeless fell upon his Sword ; and 
the heroine, like Lucretia and Calphurnia, used the blade standing. The Sword 



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xii INTRODUCTION. 

cut the Gordian knot of every difficulty. The Sword was the symbol of justice 
and of martyrdom, and accompanied the wearer to the tomb as well as to the feast 
and the fight. * Lay on my coffin a Sword/ said dying Heinrich Heine, ' for I 
have warred doughtily to win freedom for mankind.' 

From days immemorial the Queen of Weapons, a creator as well as a destroyer, 
* carved out history, formed the nations, and shaped the world.* She decided the 
Alexandrine and the Caesarian victories which opened new prospects to human 
ken. She diffused everywhere the bright lights and splendid benefits of war and 
conquest, whose functions are all important in the formative and progressive 
processes. It is no paradox to assert La giierre a enfanU le droit : without War 
there would be no Right The cost of life, says Emerson, the dreary havoc of 
comfort and time, are overpaid by the vistas it opens of Eternal Law reconstructing 
and uplifting societ}' ; it breaks up the old horizon, and we see through the rifts 
a wider view. 

War, again, benefits society by raising its tone above the ineffable littleness and 
meanness which characterise the every-day life of the many. In the presence of 
the Great Destroyer, petty feuds and miserable envy, hatred, and malice stand 
hushed and awe-struck. Very hollow in these days sounds Voltaire's banter on 
War when he says that a king picks up a parcel of men who have nothing to do, 
dresses them in blue cloth at two shillings a yard, binds their hats with coarse 
white worsted, turns them to the right and left, and marches them away to glory. 

The Sword and only the Sword raised the worthier race to power upon the 

ruins of impotent savagery ; and she carried in her train, from time immemorial, 

throughout the civilised world, Asiatic Africa, Asia, and Europe, the arts and the 

sciences which humanise mankind. In fact, whatever apparent evil the Sword may 

have done, she worked for the highest ultimate good. With the Arabs the Sword 

was a type of individuality. Thus Shanfara, the fleet-foot, sings in his Lamiyyah, 

(L-poem) : — 

Three friends : the Heart no fear shall know, 
The sharp white Sword, the yellow Bow. 

Zayd bin Ali boasts, like El-Mutanabbi : — 

The wielded Sword-blade knows my hand, 
The Spear obeys my lusty arm. 

And Ziydd El-Ajam thus writes the epitaph of El-Mughayrah : * So died he, 
after having sought death between the spear-point and the Sword-edge.' 

This * Pundonor ' presently extended westward. During the knightly ages the 
*good Sword' of the Paladin and the Chevalier embodied a new faith— the Religion 
of Honour, the first step towards the religion of humanity. These men once more 



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IN TROD UCTION'. xiii 

taught the sublime truth, the splendid doctrine known to the Stoics and the 
Pharisees, but unaccountably neglected in later creeds : — 

Do good, for Good is good to do. 
Their recklessness of all consequences soared worlds-high above the various 
egotistic systems which bribe man to do good for a personal and private con- 
sideration, to win the world, or to save his soul. Hence Aristotle blamed his 
contemporaries, the Spartans : * They are indeed good men, but they have not the 
supreme consummate excellence of loving all things worthy, decent and laudable, 
purely as such and for their own sakes ; nor of practising virtue for no other motive 
but the sole love of her own innate beauty.' The * everlasting Law of Honour 
binding on all and peculiar to each,' would have thoroughly satisfied the Stagirite's 
highest aspirations. 

In knightly hands the Sword acknowledged no Fate but that of freedom and 
free-will ; and it bred the very spirit of chivalry, a keen personal sentiment of self- 
respect, of dignity, and of loyalty, with the noble desire to protect weakness against 
the abuse of strength. The knightly Sword was ever the representative idea, the 
present and eternal symbol of all that man most prized — courage and freedom. 
The names describe her quality : she is Joyeuse, and La Tisona ; he is Zii '1-Fikdr 
(sire of splitting) and Quersteinbeis, biter of the mill-stone. The weapon was 
everywhere held to be the best friend of bravery, and the worst foe of perfidy ; the 
companion of authority, and the token of commandment ; the outward and visible 
sign of force and fidelity, of conquest and dominion, of all that Humanity wants to 
have and wants to be. 

The Sword was carried by and before kings ; and the brand, not the sceptre, 
noted their seals of state. As the firm friend of the crown and of the ermine robe, 
it became the second fountain of honour. Amongst the ancient Germans even the 
judges sat armed on the judgment-seat ; and at marriages it represented the bride- 
groom in his absence. Noble and ennobling, its touch upon the shoulder conferred 
the prize of knighthood. As *bakhsh(sh' it was, and still is, the highest testimony 
to the soldier's character ; a proof that he is * brave as his sword-blade.* Its pre- 
sence was a moral lesson ; unlike the Greeks, the Romans, and the Hebrews, Western 
and Southern Europe, during its chivalrous ages, appeared nowhere and on no 
occasion without the Sword. It was ever ready to leap from its sheath in the cause 
of weakness and at the call of Honour. Hence, with its arrogant individuality, the 
Sword still remained the * all-sufficient type and token of the higher sentiments and 
the higher tendencies of human nature.' 

In society the position of the Sword was remarkable. * Its aspect was brilliant ; 
its manners were courtly ; its habits were punctilious, and its connections were 
patrician.' Its very vices were glittering ; for most of them were the abuses which 



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xiv INTRODUCTION, 

could not but accompany its uses. It bore itself haughtily as a victor, an 
arbitrator ; and necessarily there were times when its superlative qualities 
showed corresponding defects. Handled by the vile it too often became, in the 
* syllogism of violence,' an incubus, a blusterer, a bully, a tyrant, a murderer, an 
assassin, in fact * death's stamp ' ; and under such conditions it was a * corruption 
of the best' But its lapses were individual and transient; its benefits to 
Humanity were general and ever-enduring. 

The highest period of the Sword was the early sixteenth century, that mighty 
landmark separating the dark Past from the brilliant Present of Europe. The sudden 
awaking and excitement of man's mind, produced by the revival of learning and the 
marriage-union of the West with the East ; by the discovering of a new hemisphere, 
the doubling of the world ; by the so-called Reformation, a northern protest against 
the slavery of the soul ; by the wide spread of the printing-press, which meant know- 
ledge ; and, simultaneously, by the illumination of that electric spark generated from 
the contact of human thought, suddenly changed the status of the Sword. It was no 
longer an assailant, a slaughterer : it became a defender, a preserver. It learned to 
be shield as well as Sword. And now arose swordsmanship proper, when the 
* Art of Arms ' meant, amongst the old masters, the Art of Fence. The sixteenth 
century was its Golden Age. 

At this time the Sword was not only the Queen of Weapons, but the weapon 
paramount between man and man. Then, advancing by slow, stealthy, and stumbling 
steps, the age of gunpowder, of * villanous saltpetre,' appeared upon the scene of 
life. Gradually the bayonet, a modern modification of the pike, which again derives 
from the savage spear, one of the earliest forms of the anne blanclte, ousted the 
Sword amongst infantry because the former could be combined with the fire-piece. 
A century afterwards cavalrymen learned, in the Federal-Confederate war, to 
prefer the revolver and repeater, the breech-loader and the reservoir-gun, to the 
sabre of past generations. It became an axiom that in a cavalry charge the spur, 
not the Sword, gains the day. By no means a unique, nor even a singular process 
of progress, is this return towards the past, this falling back upon the instincts of 
primitive invention, this recurrence to childhood : when the science of war reverted to 
ballistics it practically revived the practice of the first ages, and the characteristic 
attack of the savage and the barbarian who, as a rule, throw their weapons. The 
cannon is the ballista, and the arblast, the mangonel, and the trebuchet, worked not 
by muscular but by chemical forces. The torpedo is still the old, old petard ; the 
spur of the ironclad is the long-disused embolon, rostrum, or beak ; and steam-power 
is a rough, cheap substitute for man-power, for the banks of oarsmen, whose work 
had a delicacy of manipulation unknown to machinery, however ingenious. The 
armed nations, which in Europe are again becoming the substitutes for standing 



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INTRODUCTION. xv 

armies, represent the savage and barbarous stages of society, the proto-historic races, 
amongst which every man between the ages of fifteen and fifty is a man-at-arms. It 
is the same in moral matters ; the general spread of the revolutionary spirit, of repub- 
licanism, of democratic ideas, of communistic, socialistic, and nihilistic rights and 
claims now acting so powerfully upon society and upon the brotherhood of nations, 
is a re-dawning of that early day when the peoples ruled themselves, and were not 
yet governed by priestly and soldier kings. It is the same even in the * immaterials.' 
The Swedenborgian school, popularly known by the trivial name Spiritualism^ has 
revived magic, and this 'new motor force,' for such I call it, has resurrected 
the Ghost, which many a wise head supposed to have been laid for ever. 

The death-song of the Sword has been sung, and we are told that * Steel has ceased 
to be a gentleman.' ' Not so ! and by no means so. These are mere insular and in- 
sulated views, and England, though a grand figure, the mother of nations, the modern 
Rome, is yet but a fraction of the world. The Englishman and, for that matter, the 
German and the Scandinavian, adopted with a protest, and right unwillingly, swords- 
manship proper — that is, rapier and point, the peculiar and especial weapon, offensive 
and defensive, of Southern Europe, Spain, Italy, and France. During the most 
flourishing age of the Sword it is rare to find a blade bearing the name of an 
English maker, and English inscriptions seldom date earlier than the eighteenth 
century. The reason is evident. The Northerners hacked with hangers, they 
hewed with hatchets, and they cut with cutlasses because the arm suited their bulk 
and stature, weight and strength. But such weapons are the brutality of the Sword. 
In England swordsmanship is, and ever was, an exotic ; like the sentiment, as 
opposed to the knowledge, of Art, it is the property of the few, not of the many ; 
and, being rare, it is somewhat ' un-English.' 

But the case is different on the continent of Europe. Probably at no period 
during the last four centuries has the Sword been so ardently studied as it is now 
by the Latin race in France and Italy. At no time have the schools been so dis- 
tinguished for intellectual as well as for moral proficiency. The use of the foil 
•bated* and 'unbated' has once more become quasi-universal. A duello, in the 
most approved fashion of our ancestors, was lately proposed (September 1882) by 
ten journalists of a Parisian paper, to as many on the staff of a rival publication. 
Even the softer sex in France and Italy has become cunning of fence ; and women 
are among the most prosperous pupils of the salles darmes. Witness, for instance, 
the ill-fated Mdlle. Feyghine of the Th^itre Fran^ais, so celebrated for her skill in 
' the carte and the tierce and the reason demonstrative.* 

Nor is the cause of this wider diffusion far to seek. In the presence of arms of 

* I refer to a vivacious but one-sided article on *The Sword,' in BlackmoocCs Edinburgh Magazine^ 
May 1 881. 



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xvi INTRODUCTION. 

precision, the Sword, as a means of offence and defence, may practically fall for a 
time into disuse. It may no longer be the arm paramount or represent an idea. It 
may have come down from its high estate as tutor to the noble and the great Yet not 
the less it has, and will ever have, its work to do. The Ex-Queen now appears as 
instructress-general in the art of arms. As the mathematic is the basis of all exact 
science, so Sword-play teaches the soldier to handle every other weapon. This is 
well known to Continental armies, in which each regiment has its own fencing 
establishment and its salle d'annes. 

Again, men of thought cannot ignore the intrinsic value of the Sword for 
stimulating physical qualities. Ce n' est pas asses de roidir tdme, ilfaut aussi roidir 
les muscles, says Montaigne, who also remarks of fencing that it is the only exercise 
wherein t esprit s'en exerce. The best of callisthenics, this energetic educator teaches 
the man to carry himself like a soldier. A compendium of gymnastics, it increases 
strength and activity^ dexterity and rapidity of movement. Professors calculate 
that one hour of hard fencing wastes forty ounces by perspiration and respiration. 
The foil is still the best training tool for the consensus of eye and hand ; for the 
judgment of distance and opportunity ; and, in fact, for the practice of combat 
And thus swordsmanship engenders moral confidence and self-reliance while it 
stimulates a habit of resource ; and it is not without suggesting, even in the schools, 
that * curious, fantastic, very noble generosity proper to itself alone.' 

And now wh^n the vain glory of violence has passed away from the Sword 
with the customs of a past age, we can hardly ignore the fact that the manners of 
nations have changed, not for the best As soon as the Sword ceased to be worn 
in France, a Frenchman said of his compatriots that the * politest people in Europe 
had suddenly become the rudest' That gallant and courteous bearing, which in 
England during the early nineteenth century so charmed the * fiery and fastidious 
Alfieri,' lingers only amongst a few. True the swash-buckler, the professional 
duellist, has disappeared. But courtesy and punctiliousness, the politeness of man 
to man, and respect and deference of man to woman — that Frauencultus, the very 
conception of the knightly character— have to a great extent been * improved off.' 
The latter condition of society, indeed, seems to survive only in the most culti- 
vated classes of Europe ; and, popularly, amongst the citizens of the United 
States, a curious oasis of chivalry in a waste of bald utilitarianism — preserved 
not by the Sword but by the revolver. Our England has abolished the duello 
without substituting aught better for it : she has stopped the effect and left the 
cause. 

So far I have written concerning the Sword simply to show that my work does 
not come out * a day after the fair ' ; and that there is still a powerful vitality in 
the heroic Weapon. The details of such general statements will be established 



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IN TROD UCTION. xvii 

and developed in the following pages. It is now advisable to introduce this 
volume to the reader. 

During the * seventies ' I began, with a light heart, my Book of the Sword, 
expecting to finish it within a few months. It has occupied me as many years. 
Not only study and thought, but travel and inspection, were found indispensable ; 
a monograph on the Sword and its literature involved visiting almost all the great 
armouries of continental Europe, and a journey to India in 1875-6. The short 
period of months served only to show that a memoir of the Sword embraces the 
annals of the world. The long term of years has convinced me that to treat the 
subject in its totality is impossible within reasonable limits. 

It will hardly be said that a monograph of the Sword is not wanted. Students 
who would learn her origin, genealog)', and history, find no single publication ready 
to hand. They must ransack catalogues and books on * arms and armour ' that are 
numbered by the score. They must hunt up fugitive pamphlets ; papers consigned 
to the literary store-rooms called magazines ; and stray notices deep buried in the 
ponderous tomes of Recueils and general works on Hoplology. They must wade 
through volume after volume of histories and travels, to pick up a few stray 
sentences. And they will too often find that the index of an English book which 
gives copious references to glass or sugar utterly ignores the Sword. At times they 
must labour in the dark, for men who write seem wholly unconscious of the subject's 
importance. For instance, much has been said about art in Japan ; but our know- 
ledge of her metallurgy especially of her iron and steel works, is elementary, while 
that of her peculiar and admirable cutlery is strangely superficial. And travellers 
and collectors treat the Sword much as they do objects of natural history. They 
regard only the rare, the forms which they ignore, or which strike the eye, and the 
unique specimens which may have no comparative value. Thus they neglect 
articles of far more interest and of higher importance to the student, and they bring 
home, often at great expense, mere lumber for curiosity shops. 

The difficulty of treating the Sword is enhanced by the peculiar individuality 
which characterises it, evidenced by an immense variety of physique, and resulting 
as much from unconscious selection as from deep design. One of the characteristics 
of indigenous art is that no two articles, especially no two weapons, are exactly alike ; 
and yet they vary only within narrow and measurable limits. The minute differ- 
entiae of the Sword are endless. Even in the present day, swordsmen will order 
some shape, size, or weight which they hold — often unwisely enough — to be 
improvements on the general. One man, wishing to strengthen his arm, devises a 
weapon fit for a Titan and finds it worse than useless. A tale is told of a Sheffield 
cutler who, having received from Maroccan Mogador a wooden model to be copied 
in steel, made several hundred blades on the same pattern and failed to find a 



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xviii INTRODUCTION. 

single purchaser. Their general resemblance to the prevailing type was marred 
by peculiarities which unsuited them for general use ; they were adapted only to 
individual requirement, each man priding himself upon his own pattern having 
some almost imperceptible difference. Such variations are intelligible enough in 
the Sword, which must be modified for every personality, because it becomes to the 
swordsman a prolongation of his own person, a lengthening of the arm. The 
natural results are the protean shapes of the weapon and the difficulty of reducing 
these shapes to orderly description. I cannot, therefore, agree with a President of 
the Anthropological Institute ('Journal,' October 1876) when he states : 'Certainly 
the same forms of Sword might be found in different countries, but not of so peculiar 
a nature (as the Gaboon weapon) unless the form had been communicated.' Shapes 
apparently identical start up spontaneously, because types are limited and man's 
preferences easily traverse the whole range of his invention. 

Thus the stumbling-block which met me on the threshold was to introduce 
sequence, system, and lucid order into a chaos of details. It was necessary to dis- 
cover some unity, some starting-place for evolution and development, without 
which all treatment would be vague and inconsequent But where find the clue 
which makes straight the labyrinthine paths ; the point de mire which enables us 
to command the whole prospect ; the coign of vantage which displays the disposi- 
tion of details, together with the nexus^ the intercommunication, and the progress 
of the parts and the whole ? 

Two different systems of that * classification, which defines the margin of our 
ignorance,' are adopted by museums ; and, consequently, by the catalogues de- 
scribing them. I shall here quote only English collections, leaving to the Continental 
reader the task of applying the two main principles locally and generally. These 
are, first, the Topical or Geographical {e,g, Christy collection), which, as the words 
denote, examines the article itself mainly with reference to its media, nature and 
culture, place and date ; and which considers man and his works as the expression 
of the soil that bears him. The second is the Material and purely Formal (General 
A. Pitt-Rivers' collection), which regards only the objects or specimens themselves, 
without respect to their makers or their media ; and which, by investigating the 
rival laws of continuity and of incessant variation, aims at extending our knowledge 
of mankind. Both plans have their merits and their demerits. The Topical is 
the more strictly anthropologico-ethnological, because it makes the general racial 
culture its prominent feature ; but it fails to illustrate, by juxtaposition, the origin, 
the life, and the death of a special article. The Formal proposes to itself the study 
of specific ideas ; it describes their transmissions and their migrations ; and it 
displays their connection and sequence, their development and degradation. It 
exemplifies the law of unconscious selection, as opposed to premeditation and 



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INTRODUCTION. xix 

design. Thus it claims superior sociological interest, while it somewhat separates 
and isolates the article from its surroundings — mankind. 

Again, it would be unadvisable to neglect the chronological and synchrono- 
logical order (Demmin*s). This assists us in tracing with a surer hand the origin 
and derivation ; the annals, the adventures, and the accidents of an almost universal 
weapon, whose marvellously chequered career excels in dignity, in poetry, and in 
romance, anything and everything the world has yet seen. And here I have not 
been unmindful of Dr. Arthur Mitchell's sensible warning that *the rude form of 
an implement may follow as well as precede the more finished forms/ ' Due re. 
gard to dates enables us to avoid the scandalous confusion of the vulgar museum. 
Demmin found a large number of swords catalogued as dating with the time of 
Charles the Bold, when the shapes proved that they belonged to the late sixteenth 
and even to the early seventeenth centuries. I was shown, in the museum of 
Aquileja, a ' Roman sword ' which was a basket-hilted Venetian, hardly two 
hundred years old. It is only an exact chronology, made to frame the Geo* 
graphical and the Formal pictures of the weapon, that can secure scientific dis- 
tribution. 

In dealing with a subject which, like the Sword, ranges through the world- 
history, and which concerns the human race in general, it would, I venture to opine, 
be unwise to adopt a single system. As clearness can be obtained only by 
methodical distribution of matter, all the several processes must be combined with 
what art the artificer may. The Formal, which includes the Material, as well as 
the shape of the weapon, affords one fair basis for classification. The substance, 
for instance, ranges from wood to steel, and the profile from the straight line to 
the segment of a circle. The Topical, beginning (as far as we know) in the Nile 
Valley, and thence in ancient days overspreading Africa, Asia, Europe, and 
America, determines the distribution and shows the general continuity of the 
noble arm. It also readily associates itself with the chronologico-historical order, 
which begins ab initio^ furnishes a proof of general progress, interrupted only by 
fitful stages of retrogression, and, finally, dwells upon the epochs of the highest 
interest. 

After not a little study I resolved to distribute the ' Book of the Sword ' into 
three parts. 

Part I. treats of the birth, parentage, and early career of the Sword. It begins 
with the very beginning, in pre-historic times and amongst proto-historic peoples ; 
and it ends with the full growth of the Sword at the epoch of the early Roman 
Empire. 

Part II. treats of the Sword fully grown. It opens with the rising civilisation 

» Thi! Past in the Present, &c. (Edinburgh : Douglas, iS8o). 



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XX INTRODUCTION^ 

of the Northern Barbarians and with the decline of Rome under Constantine 
(a.D. 313-324), who combined Christianity with Mithraism ; when the world- 
capital was transferred to Byzantium, and when an imitation of Orientalism, 
specially of * Persic apparatus/ led to the art decay which we denote by the term 
* Lower Emp[re.' It proceeds to the rise of El-Islam ; the origin of ordered 
chivalry and knighthood ; the succession of the Crusades and the wars of arms 
and armour before the gunpowder age, when the general use of ballistics by means 
of explosives became the marking feature of battle. This was the palmy period 
of the Sword. It became a beautiful work of art ; and the highest genius did not 
disdain to chase and gem the handle and sheath. And its career culminates with 
the early sixteenth century, when the weapon of offence assumed its defensive 
phase and rose to a height of splendour that prognosticated downfall, as surely as 
the bursting of a rocket precedes its extinction. 

Part III. continues the memoirs of the Sword, which, after long declining, re- 
vives once more in our day. This portion embraces descriptions of the modem 
blade, notices of collections, public and private, notes on manufactures ; and, 
lastly, the bibliography and the literature connected with the Heroic Weapon. 

Part I., contained in this volume, numbers thirteen chapters, of which a bird's- 
eye view is given by the List of Contents. The first seven are formally and 
chronologically arranged. Thus we have the Origin of Weapons (Chapter I.) 
showing that while the arm is common to man and beast, the weapon, as a rule, 
belongs to our kind. Chapter II. treats of the first weapon proper, the Stone, 
which gave rise to ballistics as well as to implements of percussion. Follows 
(Chapter III.) the blade of base materials, wood, stone and bone, materials still 
used by races which can procure nothing better. From this point a step leads to 
the metal blade, in its origin evidently a copy of preceding types. The first, 
(Chapter IV.) is of pure copper, in our translations generally rendered by * brass ' 
or * bronze.' The intermediate substances (Chapter V.) are represented by alloys, 
a variety of mixed metals ; and they naturally end with the so-called * age ' of 
early iron, which prevailed throughout Europe at a time when the valleys of the 
Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates wrought blades of the finest steel. This division 
concludes with a formal and technical Chapter (VII.) on the shape of the Sword 
and a description of its several parts. Here the subject does not readily lend itself 
to lively description ; but, if I have been compelled to be dull, I have done my 
best to avoid being tedious. 

The arrangement then becomes geographical and chronological. My next 
five chapters are devoted to the Sword in its topical distribution and connection. 
The first (No. VIII.) begins with the various blade-forms in ancient Egypt," which 
extended throughout the then civilised worid ; it ends with showing that the Nile 



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INTRODUCTION. xxi 

valley gave their present shapes to the * white arm ' of the Dark Continent even in 
its modern day, and applied to the Sword the name which it still bears in Europe. 
The second (No. IX.) passes to Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor, lands which 
manifestly borrowed the weapon from the Egyptians, and handed it on to Assyria, 
Persia, and India. The arms and armour of the * great Interamnian Plain ' afford 
material for a third (Chapter X.). Thence, retracing our steps and passing further 
westwafds, we find manifest derivation and immense improvement of the Egyptian 
weapon in Greece (Chapter XL), from which Mycenae has lately supplied bronze 
rapiers perfectly formed as the steels of Bilboa and Toledo. The fifth Chapter (No. 
XII.) continues the ancient history of the Sword by describing the various blades 
of progressive Rome, whose wise choice and change of arms enabled her to gain the 
greatest battles with the least amount of loss. To this I have appended, for geo- 
graphical and chronological symmetry, in a sixth and last chapter (No. XIII.), a 
sketch of the Sword among the contemporary Barbarians of the Roman Empire, 
Dacians, Italians, Iberians, Gauls, Germans, and the British Islands. This portion 
of the Sword history, however, especially the Scandinavian and the Irish, will be 
treated at full length in Part 11. 

Here, then, ends the First Part, which Messrs. Chatto and Windus have kindly 
consented to publish, whilst my large collection of notes, the labour of years, is 
being ordered and digested for the other two. I may fairly hope, if all go well, 
to see both in print before the end of 1884. 

In the following pages I have confined myself, as much as was possible, to the 
Sword ; a theme which, indeed, offers an einbarras de ricltesses. But weapons cannot 
be wholly isolated, especially when discussing origins: one naturally derives 
from and connects with the other ; and these relations may hardly be passed over 
without notice. I have, therefore, indulged in an occasional divagation, especially 
concerning the axe and the spear ; but the main line has never been deserted. 

Nor need I offer an excuse for the amount of philological discussion which the 
nomenclature of the Sword has rendered necessary. If I have opposed the Past 
Masters of the art, my opposition has been honest, and I am ever open to refuta- 
tion. Travellers refuse to believe that * Aryanism ' was bom on the bald, bleak 
highlands of Central Asia, or that ' Semitism ' derives from the dreary, fiery deserts 
of Arabia. We do not believe India to be * the country which even more than 
Greece or Rome was the cradle of grammar and philology.' I cannot but hold 
that England has, of late years, been greatly misled by the * Aryan heresy ' ; and I 
look forward to the study being set upon a sounder base. 

The illustrations, numbering 293, have been entrusted to the artistic hands of 
Mr. Joseph Grego, who has taken a friendly interest in the work. But too much 
must not be expected from them in a book which intends to be popular, and 



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kxii INTROD UCTION. 

which is, therefore, limited in the matter of expense. Hence they are fewer than I 
should have desired. The libraries of Europe contain many catalogues of weapons 
printed in folio with highly finished and coloured plates which here would be out 
of place. That such a work upon the subject of the Sword will presently appear 
I have no doubt ; and my only hope is that this volume will prove an efficient 
introduction. 

To conclude. I return grateful thanks to the many mitwerkers who have as- 
sisted me in preparing this monograph ; no more need be said, as all names will be 
mentioned in the course of the work. A journey to the Gold Coast and its results, 
in two volumes, which describe its wealth, must plead my excuse for the delay in 
bringing out the book. The manuscript was sent home from Lisbon in December 
1 88 1, but the * tyranny of circumstance ' has withheld it for nearly two years. 

RICHARD F. BURTON. 



Postscript. An afterthought suggests that it is only fair, both for readers and 
for myself, to own that sundry quotations have been borrowed at second-hand and 
that the work of verification, so rightly enjoined upon writers, has not always been 
possible. These blemishes are hardly to be avoided in a first edition. At Trieste, 
and other places distant from the great seats of civilisation, libraries of reference 
are unknown ; and it is vain to seek for the original source. Indeed, Mr. James 
Fergusson once wrote to me that it was an overbold thing to undertake a History 
of the Sword under such circumstances. However, I made the best use of sundry 
visits to London and Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and other capitals, and did what I could 
to remedy defects. Lastly, the illustrations have not always, as they ought, been 
drawn to scale, they were borrowed from a number of volumes which paid scant 
attention to this requisite. 



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LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 



Academy [The\ a Weekly Review of Literature, 

Science, and Art 
Agricola, De Re Metallicd^ First published in 

1551. 
Akermann (J. Y.), Remains of Pagan Saxon- 

dom. London : Smith, mdccclv. 
Amicis (Edoardo de), Marocco. Milan : Treves, 

1876. 
Ammianus Marcellinus, Historian of the Lower 

Empire. Fourth century. 
Anderson (J. R.), Saint MarJ^s Rest: the Place 

of Dragons^ edited by John Ruskin, LL.D. 

Allen : Sunnyside, Orpington, Kent, 1879. 
Anderson (Joseph), Scotland in Early Christian 

Times, Rhind Lectures n Archaeology for 

1879. Edinburgh : Douglas, 1882. 
Anthropologia (London Anthropological Society. 

Established Jan. 22, 1873; first number, 

Oct 1873; <i>cd after fifth number, July 

1875.) 
Anthropological Institute (The Journal of), 

London : Triibner. 
Anthropological Review^ VoL I.- II I. London : 

Triibner, 1863-65. 
Antiquaries of London (Society of), from the 

beginning in 1770 to 1883. 
Antiquities ofOrissOy by Rajendralala Mitra, 2 

vols. fol. ; published by Government of 

India. 
Apuleius (A.D. 130). 
Archaologiay or Tracts relating to Antiquity^ 

published by the Society of Antiquaries of 

London, from the commencement in 1749 

to 1863. 
Archaeological Association, vol. iv., Weapons^ 

&*c,y of Horn, 
Archaology {Transactions of the Society of 

Biblical)^ London : Longmans ; beginning 

in 1872. 
Aristophanes. 
Aristotle, Meteorologica^ &»c. 



Arrian (Flavius), A.D. 90, Anabasis^ 6f*c, 

Athenceum ( T^), Journal of English and Foreign 
Literature, &c. 

Athenaeus (A.D. 230), Deipnosophists. 

Baker (Sir Samuel White), The Nile Tribu- 
taries, London: Macmillan, 1866. The 
Albert Nyanxa, London, 1868. 

Balthazar Ribello de Aragdo ; Viagens dos Por-- 
tuguezes^ Collecqdo cU DocumentoSy por 
Luciano Cordeiro, Lisboa, Imprensa Na- 
cional, 1881. The learned Editor is Secre- 
tary to the Royal Geographical Society of 
Lisbon. 

Barbosa (Duarte), A Description of the Coasts 
of East Africa and Malabar^ translated 
for the Hakluyt Society, London, by Honour- 
able Henry E. (now Lord) Stanley, 1866. 
Written about A.D. 15 12-14, and attributed 
by some to Magellan. 

Barth (Henry), Travels^ dfc,^ in Central Africa 
1 849- 1 85 5 ; 5 vols., 8vo. London : Long- 
mans, 1875. 

Barth^lemy (Abbd J. J.), Voyage du Jeune Ana- 
charsis en Grhe^ &*c,j 5 vols. 4to. Paris, 
1788. 

Bataillard (Paul) On Gypsies and other Matters 
Soci^td Anthropologique de Paris, 1874. 

Beckmann (John), A History of Inventions ^ Dis- 
coverieSy and Origins^ translated by W. 
Johnston. London : Bell and Daldy, 1872 
(fourth edition, revised). It is a useful 
book of reference and wants only a few 
additions. 

Berosus (b.c. 261), Fragments ^ edit Muller. 

Bollaert (William), Antiquarian^ Ethnological^ 
and other Researches, London : Triibner, 
1 86a 

Bologna, Congrls dArchiologie et d*Anthropo- 
logie Pr^historiquesy Session de Bologna^ 
I vol. 8vo. Fava and Garagnani : Bologna, 
187 1. 



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XXIV 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 



Bonnycastle (Captain R. H., of the Royal En- 
gineers), Spanish America^ &c. Philadel- 
phia : A. Small, 1817. 

Borlase (William), Observations on the Antiqui- 
ties^ 6r*Ct of the County of Cornwall, Ox- 
ford, 1754. 

Boscawen (W. St Chad), Papers in Society of 
Biblical Archseology. 

Boutell (Charles), Arms and Armour, London, 
1867. 

Brewster (Sir David), Letters on Natural Magic^ 
i2mo. London, 1833. 

Brugsch (Heinrich), A History of Egypt under 
the Pharaohs^ 6r»c,j by Henry Brugsch-Bey 
(now Pasha). Translated from the German 
by the late Henry Danby Seymour ; com- 
pleted and edited by Philip Smith, 2 vols. 
8vo. London : Murray, 1879. The first 
part has been published in French, Leipzig, 
1859. The archaistic German style of 
Geschichte Aegyptetis is very difficult 

Bulletin de V Institut Egyptien, Cairo : Mourns, 
1882. 

Bunsen (Baron C. C. J.), Egypfs Place in Uni- 
versal History^ &*c.y with additions by 
Samuel Birch, LL.D., 5 vols. 8vo. London : 
Longmans, 1867. 

Bumouf (Emile), Essai sur le Veda^ ou Etudes 
sur les Religions^ 6t*c,^ de tlnde^ i vol. 
8vo., 1863. * L'Age de Bronze,* Revue des 
deux MondeSy July 15, 1877. 

Burton (R. F.), A Complete System of Bayonet 
Exercise, London : Clowes, 1853. The 
Athenaum^ Nov. 24, i88a Camoens^ his 
Ufe and his LusiadSy 2 vols. i2mo., Qua- 
ritch, 1881. To the Gold Coast for Gold, 
London : Chatto and Windus, 1883. 

Caesar (Julius), Opera Omnia^ Delphin edit., 
variorum notes, 4 vols. 8vo. Londini, 
1819. 

Calder Q. E.), Some Account of the Wars of 
Extirpation and Habits of the Native Tribes 
of Tasmania^ Joum. Anthrop. Instit, vol. 
iii. 1873. 

Cameron (Commander Vemey Lovett, C.B., 
D.C.L., &c.). Across Africa. London : 
Daldy and Isbister, 1877. 

Camoens, Os Lusiadas. 

Catalogue du Bulak Musium^ by the late 
Mariette-Bey (afterwards Pasha). Cairo : 
A. Mourns, imprimeur-^diteur. 

Catalog, Die Ethnographisch-Anthropologische 
Abtheilung des Museums Godefroy in Ham- 
burgh vol. i. 8vo. L. Frederichsen u. Co. 
1881. 

Caylus (Comte de), Recueil dAntiquitis igypt- 
ienneSy 6r*c.f 8 vok. 4to. Paris, 1752-70. 



Celsus (A. Cornelius), De Medicind^ edit, prin- 
ceps. Florentine, a Nicolao impressus, ad. 
1478. 

Chabas, J^tudes sur VAntiquiti Historique 
d^apris les sources Egyptienms^ 1872. 

Chaillu (Paul B. du), Explorations and Adven- 
tures in Equatorial Africa^ 6r*c, London : 
Murray, 1861. The Gorilla-book, 

Chapman (Captain George), Foil Practice^ with 
a Review of the Art of Fencing, London : 
Clowes, 1 86 1. 

Clapperton (Captain H.), Journal of a Second 
Expedition into Africa^ i voL 4to. London, 
1829. 

Clermont-Ganneau (Charles), Horus et Saint 
George^ &*c, Extrait de la Revue Arch^o- 
logique, Dec. 1877. Paris : Didier et C*. 
The author is a prolific writer and a highly 
distinguished Orientalist 

Cochet Qean BenoU D^sir^, Abb^), Le Tombeau 
de ChildMc /., Roi des Francs, Restitu^ 
k Faide de Tarch^ologie et des d^ouvertes 
r^centes, 8vo. Paris : 1859. 

Cole (Lieutenant H. H., of the Royal Engineers), 
Catalogue of Indian Art in the South Ken' 
sington Museum, 

Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in 

Kashmir^ prepared under the authority of 
the Secretary of State for India from photo- 
graphs, plans, and drawings taken by order 
of the Government of India. London, 1869. 
4to. 

The Architecture of Ancient Delhi^ espe- 
cially the buildings around the Kutb Minar^ 
fol. London, 1872. 

Cooper (Rev. Basil H.), The Antiquity and the 
Use of Metals and especially Iron^ among 
the Egyptians^ Transac. Devonshire Assoc 
for the Advancement of Science, 1868. 

Cory (Isaac Preston), Ancient Fragments of 
the Phceniciany Chaldcean^ Egyptian^ 
Tyrian^ Carthaginian^ and other writers^ 
8vo. London, 1832. Very rare. New 
edit. Reeves and Turner : London, 1876. 

Crawfurd (John), On the Sources of the Supply 
of Tin for the Brome Tools and Weapons 
of Antiquity y Trans. Ethnol. Soc., N.S., vol. 
iii. 1865. 

Cunningham (General A.), The Bhilsa Topes^ 
6fc,^ 8vo. London, 1854. LAdak^ h*c,y 
royal 8vo. London, 1854. Archaeological 
Survey oflndia^ 6 vols. 8vo. Simla, 1871- 
78. 

Czoemig (Baron Carl von), jun. Ueber die 
vorhistorischen Funde im Laibacher Torf- 
moor, Alpine Soc. of Trieste, Dec. 8, 
1875. 



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LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 



XXV 



Daniel (P^re Gabriel), Histoire de la Milice 
Fran^oise^ et des Changemens qui ^y sont 
faits^ depuis ntablissement de la Monarchie 
Framboise dans les Gaules^ jusqti d la fin du 
R^gne de Louis le Grand^ 7 vols. 8vo. A 
Amsterdam ; au d^pens de la Compagnie 
(de J^sus), MDCCXXiv. It is a standard 
work as far as it goes. 

Davis (Sir John F.), The Chinese: a general 
Description of the Empire of China and its 
Inhabitants^ 2 vols. 8vo. London : Knight, 
MDCCCVI. 

Day (St. John Vincent), The Prehistoric Use of 
Iron and Steel, London : Triibner, 1877. 
When sending me a copy of his learned 
and original study, Mr. Day wrote to me 
that he is bringing out a second edition, in 
which his * collection of additional matter 
will modify and correct certain of his former 
views.* 

Demmin (Auguste), Illustrated History of Arms 
and Armoury translated by C. C. Black, 
M.A. London : Bell, 1877. The illustra- 
tions leave much to be desired ; the Oriental 
notices are deficient, and the translator has 
made them worse. Otherwise the book 
gives a fair general and superficial view. 

Denham (Major Dixon), Clapperton and Oud- 
ney's Travels in Northern and Central 
Africa^ in 1822-24, 2 vols. 8vo. London, 
1826. 

Deschmann und Hochstetter, Prdhistorische An- 
siedlungeny Gr*c.y in Krain. Laybach, 1879. 

Desor (Edouard), Les Palafittesy ou Construc- 
tions lacustres du lac de NeuchdteL Paris, 
1865. L>ie Pfahlbauten des Neuenberger 
Sees, Frankfurt a. M., 1866. Desor et 
Favre, Le Bel Age du Bronze lacustre en 
Suisse, I vol. fol. Neufch4tel, 1874. 

Diodorus Siculus (b.c 44), Bibliotheca Historicay 
P. Wesselingius, 2 vols. fol. Amstelod., 
1746. 

Dion Cassius (nat. A.D. 155). 

Dionysius of Halicamassus (b.C 29), Opera 
Omniay J. J. Reiske, 6 vols. 8vo. Lipsiae, 
1774. 

Dodwell (Edward), A Classical and Topogra- 
phical Tour through Greece y 180 1-6, 2 vols. 
4to. London, 181 9. 

Douglas (Rev. James, F.A.S.), Nania Britan- 
nicay 1793, folio. 

Dumichen, Geschichte des alien Aegyptens, 
Berlin, 1879. 

Ebers (Prof. George), Aegypten und die Bucher 
Moses, Leipzig, 1868. Followed by sundry 
Germano-Egyptian romances, An Egyptian 
PrincesSy Uarday 6t*c, 



Edkins (Rev. Dr.) China's Place in Philology: 
an Attempt to show that the Languages of 
Europe and Asia have a Common Of igin, 
London, i vol. 8vo., 1871. 

Ellis (Rev. William), Polynesian Researches, 
London : Murray, 1858. 

Elphinstone, History of Indioy 2 vols. 8vo. 
1841. 

Encyclopadia Britannica. 

Metropolitana, 

Penny (one of the best), 

Knighfs, 

Engel (W. H.), Kypros : eine Monographic, 
2 vols. 8vo. Berlin : Reimer, 1841. 

Ethnological Society of London {fournal of) 
7 vols. 8vo. 1848-65. 

Eusebius (Bishop of Caesarea, a.d. 264-340), 
Histories Ecclesiasticos Libri Decern ; denuo 
edidit F. A. Heinichen, 3 vols. 8vo. Lipsise, 
1868. 

Evans (Dr. John), The Ancient Stone Imple- 
ments of Great Britain, i vol. 8vo. London : 
Longmans, 1872. The Ancient Implements 
of Great Britain and Irelandy ibid. 1881. 
Both works are admirably well studied and 
exhaust the subjects as far as they are now 
known. 

Ewbank (Thomas), Life in Brazily \ vol. 8vo. 
New York, 1856; London : Sampson Low 
and Co., 1856. The Appendix is anthro- 
pologically valuable. 

Fairholt (F. W.), A Dictionary of Terms of Arty 
I vol. i2mo. Virtue and Hall, London, 

1849. 

Farrar (Canon), LifCy 6r*c.y of Saint Paul. 
Cassell and Ca : London, Paris, and New 
York (undated). 

Ferguson (Sir James), Transections of the Irish 
Association, 

Ferg^sson (James), A History of ArchitecturCy 
4 vols. 8vo. London, 1874-76. 

Festus (Sextus Pompeius), De Verborum Signi- 
ficationey K. O. Muller. Lipsiae, 1839. The 
Grammarian lived between A.D. 100 (Mar- 
tial's day) and A.D. 422 (under Theodosius 
II.). 

Ficke, Wdrterbuchderlndo-germanischen Grund- 
sprachcy 6r»c, Gottingen, 1868. 

Florus (Annaeus : temp, Trajan), Rerum Rotna- 
narum libri /F., Delphin edit., 2 vols., 8vo 
Londini, 1822. 

Fox (A. Lane-, now Major-General A, Pitt- 
Rivers). This distinguished student of 
Anthropology, who ranks foremost in the 
knowledge of early weapons, happily applied 
the idea of evolution, development, and pro- 
gress to his extensive collection, the work of 



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XXVI 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 



some thirty years. To show the successive 
steps he grouped his objects according to 
their forms and uses, beginning with the sim- 
plest ; and to each class he appended an 
ideal type, towards which the primitive 
races were ever advancing, making innu- 
merable mistakes, in some cases even 
retrograding, but on the whole attaining a 
higher plane. The papers from which I 
have quoted, often word for word, in my 
first chapters, are (i) 'Primitive Warfare,* 
sect, i., read on June 28, 1867 (pp. 1-35, 
with five plates), and Sect iL, * On the 
Resemblance of the Weapons of Early 
Races, their Variations, Continuity, and 
Development of Form,* read on June 5, 
1868 (pp. 1-42, with eight diagrams) ; and 
(2) * Catalogue of the Anthropological 
Collection lent for Exhibition in the Bethnal 
Green Branch of the South Kensington 
Museum, with (131) Illustrations;* pt. I. 
and II. (III. and IV. to be published here- 
after), 1874, &c., 8vo., pp. 1-184. The col- 
lection,then containing some 14,000 objects, 
left Bethnal Green for the Western Gal- 
leries of the Museum in South Kensington. 
After a long sojourn there it was offered to 
the public; but England, unlike France, 
Germany, and Italy, has scant appreciation 
of anthropological study. At length it was 
presented to the University of Oxford, 
where a special building will be devoted 
to its worthy reception. I have taken the 
liberty of suggesting to General Pitt- 
Rivers that he owes the public not only 
the last two parts of his work, but also a 
folio edition with coloured illustrations of 
the humble * Catalogue.' 

Genthe (Dr. Hermann), a paper on ' Etruscan 
Commerce with the North,' Archiv fur 
Anthrop.^ vol. vi. (from his work Ueber den 
etruskischen Tauschkandel nach Norden), 
Frankfurt, 1874. 

Gladstone (Right Hon. W. E.), Juventus Mundi^ 
I vol 8vo. London, 1869. * Metals in 
Homer/ Contemporary Review^ 1874. 

Glas (George), * The History of the Discovery 
and Conquest of the Canary Islands,' Pin- 
kerton^ Voyages^ vol. xvi. 

Goguet (Antoine Yves), De POrigine des Lois^ 
des AriSy et des Sciences^ et de leur progrls 
chez Us anciens peuples (par A. Y. G., aid^ 
par Alex. Conr. Fugdre), 3 vols., plates, 4to. 
Paris, 1758. Numerous editions and trans- 
lations. 

Goguet (M. de). The Origin of Laws y Arts^ and 
Sciences^ and their progress among the 



most Ancient Nations. English transla- 
tion by Thompson, 3 vols., plates, 8vo. 
Edinburgh, 1761. 

Gozzadini (Senator Count Giovanni), Di un 
antico sepolcro a Ceretolo nel Bolognese, 
Modena : Vincenzi, 1872. The author has 
taken a distinguished place in antiquarian 
anthropology by his various and valuable 
studies of Etruscan remains found in and 
around Felsina, now Bologna. I have 
ventured upon suggesting to him that these 
detached papers, mostly printed by Fava, 
Garagnani, and Co., of Bologna, should be 
collected and published in a handy form 
for the benefit of students. 

Graah (Captain W. A.), Narrative of an Expe- 
dition to the Eastern Coast of Greenland^ &*c. 
Translated from the Danish (Copenhagen, 
1832) by C. Gordon Macdougall, 8vo. 
London, 1837. 

Grant (Captain, now Colonel, James A.),.^ IValh 
across Africa^ or Domestic Scenes from my 
Nile Journal, Blackwoods : Edinburgh, 
MDCCCLXIV. 

Grose (Captain Francis), Military Antiquities 
respecting the History of the British Army. 
From the Conquest to the Present Time. A 
new edition with material additions and 
improvements, 2 vols. 8vo. London, printed 
for T. Egerton, Whitehall ; and G. Kearsley, 
Fleet Street, 1801. The first edition ap- 
peared in 1786, and the learned author 
died (act. 52) of apoplexy at Dublin, May 
12, 1791. 

Grote (George), History ofGreece^ 12 vols. 8vo. 
1846-56. 

Guthrie (Mrs.), My Year in an Indian Fort, 
Hurst and Blackett : London, 1877. 

Hamilton (Will J.), Researches in Asia Minor ^ 
PontuSy and Armenia^ 6f*c,y 2 vols. 8vo. 
London : Murray, 1842. 

Hanbury (Daniel), Science Papers^ 6r*c,y edited 
with Memoir by Joseph Ince, i vol. 8vo. 
London, 1876. 

Heath (Rev. Dunbar Isidore), Exodus Papyri^ 
8vo. London, 1855. Phoenician Inscrip- 
tions, London, Quaritch, 1873. 'Hittite 
Inscriptions,' Joum^ Anthrop. Institute^ 
May, 1880. 

Herodotusy Rawlinson's, 4 vols. Murray, 1858. 
This valuable work wants a second edition 
revised. 

Herrera (Antonio, chief chronicler of the Indies), 
Historia Geraly &*c,y VIII. Decads, 4 vols, 
folio. Madrid, 1601. 

Hesiod, Opera et Dies; Scutumy &*c. Poetae 
Minores Grseci, vol. i. 



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LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 



XXVll 



Holub (Dr. Emil), Seven Years in South Africay 
2 vols. 8vo. Sampson Low and Co. 
1881. 

Homer, O^era Omnia^ by J. A. Emesti. 5 vols. 
8vo. Glasgow, 18 14. 

Horatius, Opera Om,^ ex edit. Zeunii. Delphin 
edit, 4 vols. 8vo. Londini, 1825. 

Howorth (H. H.), 'Archaeology of Bronze.' 
Trans. Ethno, Soc^ vol. vi. 

Humboldt (Baron Alexander von), Personal 
Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial 
Regions of America, 3 vols. 8vo. Bohn's 
Scientific Library, London, 1852. 

Iron, an Illustrated Weekly Journal of Science, 
Metals, and Manufactures in Iron and 
Steel, edited by Perry E. Nursey, C.E., to 
whom I have to express my thanks. 

Isidorus Hispalensis (Bishop of Seville, A.D. 
600-636), opera Omnia (including the 
• Origines * and * Etymologfies *), published 
by J. du Breul, fol. Parisiis, 1601. 

Jacquemin (Raphael), Histoire Gindrale du 
Costume, &*c. Du IV»* au XIX«* Sidcle 
(A.D. 315-1815). Paris. 

Jahns (Major Max), Handbuch einer Geschichte 
des Kriegswesens von der Urzeit an zur 
Renaissance, Technischer Theil : Bewaff- 
nung, Kampfweise, Befestigung, Belagerung, 
Seewesen, Leipzig : Grunow, 1880. Major 
Jahns, an officer upon the General Staff 
of the German army, has produced in i 
vol. imp. 8vo. (pp. 640) a most laborious 
and useful work, accompanied by an atlas 
of one hundred carefully drawn plates. He 
quotes authorities literally by the hundred. 
The work amply deserves to be translated 
into English, but its public would, I fear, 
be very limited. 

Josephus (Flavins). 

Justinus (Frontinus). History y Fourth and Fifth 
Century, abridged from Trogus Pompeius. 

Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana, part i., with a 
preface and introduction. Printed for the 
Hindu Kama Shastra Society of London, 
1883; for private circulation only. The 
poet whose name was Mallinaga or Mril- 
lana (of the Vatsyayana family) lived be- 
tween the first and sixth century of the 
Christian i£ra. This, too, is only known 
by his poetry. Hindu-land is rich in Kama 
literattu-e. 

Keller (Dr. Ferdinand), Die Kdltischen Pfahl- 
tauten in den Schweiser Seen, Zurich, 
1854-66. There is an English translation 
The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland, 

King (late Dr. Richard), Tratts. EtknoL Soc, 
vols. i. and ii. 



Klemm (Dr. Gustav Friedrich), Werkzeuge und 
Wciffen, Leipzig, 1854. An edition of 
Klemm's (G. F.), Die Werkzeuge und Waf 
fen, ihre Entstehung und Ausbildung, with 
342 woodcuts in the text, 8vo. Published 
at Sondershausen, 1858. Allgemeine Cut- 
turwissenschaft, 2 vols, with woodcuts, 8vo. 
Leipzig, 18-4-5. 

Kolben (Peter) Present State of the Cape of 
Good Hope, &*c,, 2 vols. 8vo., 1738. 

Kremer (Ritter Adolf von) Idn Chaldun und 
seine Culturgeschichte, Wien, 1879. 

Lacombe, Les Armes et les Armures, Paris, 
1 868. 

Land and Water, weekly paper published by 
William Bates ; it contains many articles 
by the late lamented Mr. Frank Buckland, 
F.Z.S. 

Latham (John): this * Assistant-Conmiissioner 
for Exhibitions' (1862, 1867, and 1873), who 
succeeded in business Messrs. Wilkinson 
and Son of Pall Mall, and who lately died, 
gave me copies of his two excellent papers, 
(i) *The Shape of Sword-blades,' and (2) 
•A Few Notes on Swords in the Inter- 
national Exhibition of 1862 ' {Journal of the 
R. U,S, Institution, vols. vi. and vii.). With 
the author's permission I have freely used 
these two valuable professional studies, 
especially in Chapter VIL The late Mr. 
Latham was a practical Swordsman, and 
his long experience as a maker of the * white 
arm* renders his information thoroughly 
trustworthy. I wish every success to his 
son, who now fills his place in an estab- 
lishment famous for turning out good 
work. 

Latham (Robert Gordon), Ethnology of the 
British Islands, i vol. i2mo. London, 
1852. Descriptive Ethnology, 2 vols. 8vo. 
1859. 

Layard (Sir Henry Austen), Nineveh and its 
Remains, 2 vols. 8vo., 1849. Monuments of 
Nineveh, ist and 2nd Series, 1849-53. A 
Popular Account of Discoveries at Nineveh, 
London: Murray, 1851. Fresh Discoveries 
in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, i vol. 
8vo. London : Murray, 1853. 

Legge (Dr. James), The Chinese Classics, 3 vols. 
8 vo. London, 1 86 1 - 76 ; vol. i., ' Confucius ' ; 
ii., * Mencius ' ; iii., * She-King or Book of 
Poetry.' 

Lenormant (Francois), Manuel d^ Histoire An- 
cienne de V Orient, 2 vols., i2mo. Paris, 
1868. Les Premieres Civilisations, 3 vols. 
i2mo. Paris, 1874. Germ. Trans., Jena, 
1875. 



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XXVlll 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES, 



Lepsius (Dr. KxcYi^iTd)^ DenkmaUr aus Aegypten 
und Aethiopien nach den Zeichnungen der 
Preussischen Expedition, Denkmdler aus 
Aegypten und Aethiopien (1842-45). Ber- 
lin, 1849-59. Discoveries in Egypt ^ 6r*c.y 
translated by Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, 
8vo. London, 1852. Die Metalle in den 
Aegyptischen Inschriften (Akad. der Wiss., 
A.D. 187 1), the latter translated into French 

1877. 

Lindsey (Dr. W. Lauder), Proceedings of Society 
0/ Arts of Scotland^ vol. v. 327. 

Livy. 

Lopez (Vicente Fidel), Les Races Aryennes du 
P/rou,&*c, Paris: A. Franck, 1871. A 
copy was sent to me by my old friend John 
Coghlan, C.E., of Buenos Ayres. 

Lubbock (Sir John W.), Pre-historic Times^ 
I vol. 8vo., 1865. Primitive Inhabitants of 
Scandinavia (Nillson*s), 3rd edit. London, 
1868. Ofigin of Civilisation, 6f*c,^ 8vo. 
London, 1870. 

Lucan. 

Lucretius. 

Luynes (Due de), NumismcUique et Inscriptions 
Cypriotes, Paris, 1852. 

Lyell (Sir Charles), Principles of Geology, 
London : Murray, 1 830-3. The Antiquity 
of Man from Geological Evidences, Lon- 
don : Murray, 1863. 

Major (R. H.), The Select Letters of Columbus, 
&*c, London : Hakluyt Soc, mdccclx. 

McMava'Dhcpyna'Shdstra{V,2i,ws of Menu), trans- 
lated by Houghton. London, 1825. 

Manetho (b.c 285). 

Marchionni (Alberto), Trattato di Scherma, 6r*c, 
Firenze : Bencini, 1847. 

Markham (Clements R.), Pedro de Ciesa (Ciefa) 
de Leon, 1869. Commentaries of the Vncas, 

1 87 1. Reports on the Discovery of Peru, 

1872. All printed by the Hakluyt Society. 
Massart (Alfred), Gisements MitcUlif^res du dis- 
trict de Carthaghu {Espagne). Li^ge, 1 87 5. 

Massey (Gerald), A Book of the Beginnings, 
London : Williams and Norgate, 1881. 
Two volumes were first published, and 
the two concluding are lately issued. A 
learned friend writes to him : * I find little 
to remark upon or criticise. You seem to 
have got down far below Tylor, and to be 
making good your ground in many matters. 
If people will only read your book, it will 
make them cry out in some way or other. 
But you require a populariser, and may 
have to wait a long time for one.' 

Mela (Pomponius), De Situ Orbis (a.d. 41-54). 
This little work deserves a modern English 



translation ; but what can be said of geo- * 
graphers whose Royal Geographical Society 
has not yet translated Ptolemy ? 

Meyrick (Sir Samuel Rush), Critical Inquiry 
into Ancient Armour as it existed in Europe, 
particularly in Great Britain, from the 
Norman Conquest to Charles the Second, 
with a Glossary of Military Terms of the 
Middle Ages. I quote from the Second 
Edition. 3 vols, atlas 4to. London : Bohn, 
1844. The first edition was published in 
1824 without the supervision of the author, 
who found fault with it, especially with the 
colouring. The next edition, in 1844, was 
enlarged by the author with the assistance 
of friends, Mr. Albert Way and others. It 
was followed by Engraved Illustrations of 
Ancient Arms cmd Armour, the artistic 
work of Mr. Joseph Skelton. 

Milne (John), *0n the Stone Age of Japan,' 
Joum. Anthrop, Instil^ May 1881. 

Mitchell (Dr. Arthur), * The Past in the Present,* 
&c., Rhind Lectures, 1876-78, i vol. 8va 
Edinburgh : Douglas, i88a 

Montaigne (Michel de), Essais, translated by 
William Hazlitt. London : C. Templeman, 
MDCCCUll (3rd edition). 

Monteiro and Gamitto, O Muata Castembe, i 
vol. 8vo. Imprensa Nacional, Lisboa, 1854. 

Moore, Ancient Mineralogy, 

Moorcroft (William) and Trebeck (GeorgeX 
Trcn'els in the Himalayan Provinces of 
Hindustan and Punjab, &*c,,from 18 19 to 
1825, 8vo. London : Murray, 1841. 

Morgan (Lewis), The League of the Iroquois, 

Mortot, *0n the Swiss Lakes,* Bulletin de la 
Soci^t^ Vaudoisey vol. vi., 6^c. * Les M^taux 
dans I'Age du Bronze * (Mtm. Soc, Ant, du 
Nord, 1866-71). 

Mortillet (Gabriel de), * Les Gaulois de Marza- 
botto dans I'Apennin,' Revue Archiologique, 
1 870-7 1 . This anthropologist has published 
largely, and did good work at the Congress 
of Bologna. 

l/low^TS, Die Phonizier, Berlin, 1840-56. The 
book is somewhat antiquated, but still 
valuable. 

Much (Dr. M.), *Ueber die Prioritat dcs Ebens 
Oder der Bronze in Ostasien,' Trans, An- 
throp. Soc, of Vienna, vol. ix, Separat- 
Abdruck. 

Miiller (Prof. F. Max), Chips from a German 
Workshop, 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1867. 
Lectures on the Science of Language, 2 vols. 
i2mo. London, 1873 (7th edit.). Intro- 
duction to the Science of Religion, 1 2 mo 
London, 1873. 



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LIST OF AUTHORITIES, 



XXIX 



Neuhoff, Travels in Brazil. Pinkerton, vol. 
xiv. 

Nillson (Prof. Sven), The Primitive Inhabitants 
of Scandinavia^ translated by Sir John 
Lubbock. He is illustrated by Colonel A. 
Lane-Fox {Prim. War/.^ p. 135) and by 
Wilde {Catalogue, &*c.). 

Oldfield, 'Aborigines of Australia,' Trans. 
Ethnol. Soc.y new series, voL iii. 

Oppert (Professor), On the Weapons^ &*c., of 
the Ancient Hindus. London : Tnibner, 
1880. 

Opusculum Fidicularum^ the Ancestry of the 
Violin^ by Ed- Heron Allen. London : 
Mitchell and Hughes, 1882. The author 
kindly sent me a copy of his work. 

Orosius (Presbyter Paulus), A.D. 413), Histori- 
arum Libri Septem. The Anglo-Saxon 
version of Aelfred the Great; translated, 
&c., by Daines Barrington, i vol 8vo. 
London, 1773, and by Bosworth, 1859. 

Osbum (William), Monumental History of 
Egypt ^ 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1854. 

Owen (Pro£ Richard), On the Anatomy of Ver- 
tebrateSy 3 vols. 8vo. London, 1866-^. 

Palestine Exploration Fund, founded 1865 ; pub- 
lishes Quarterly Statement. The Society's 
office, I Adam Street, Adelphi, W.C. 

Palma (General Luigi di Cesnola), Cyprus^ its 
Ancient CitieSy Tombs^ and Temples^ 8vo. 
London : Murray, 1877. Cypem. Gena : 
Leipzig, 1879. 

Palma (Major di Cesnola), * On Phoenician Art 
in Cyprus/ Brit. Archceol. Assoc.^ Dec. 6, 
1882. 

Paterculus (C. Velleius, B.C 19). 

Pausanias {temp. Antonin. Pius), Periegesis {or 
Itinerary) of Greece. The work of a good 
traveller, translated by Thomas Taylor, 
3 vols. 8vo. London, 1824. 

Percy (Dr. John), Fuel^ Fireclays^ Copper^ Zinc^ 
Brass y6r*c. London: Murray, 186 1. Metal- 
lurgy : Iron and Steely ibid., 1864. Lecui^ 
1870. Silver and Gold^ part i., 1880. These 
works are too well known and too highly 
appreciated to be noticed except by name. 

Petherick (John), Egypt^ the Soudan^ and Cen- 
tral Africa^ 8vo. Blackwoods, Edinburgh, 
MDCCCLXi. The late author was a Cornish 
miner who had the honesty not to find coal 
for Mohammed Ali Pasha of Egypt. 

Petronius Arbiter. 

Phillips (Prof John A.), A Guide to Geology^ 
i2mo. London, 1864. * A Manual of Me- 
tallurgy, or a Practical Treatise on the 
Chemistry of the Metals,' illustrated. Lon- 
don, 1864 : ArchaologiccU Journalywol, xvi. 



Philo Judseus (A.D. 40). 

Pigafetta (Antonio, of Vicenza, who accompanied 
Magalhaens, the first circunmavigator, 
1 5 1 9- 1 522), Primo Viaggio intomo al Globo^ 
4to. Milan, 1800 ; published by Amoretti. 
He was best known before that date by 
Ramusio's work. 

Polyaenus the Macedonian dedicated his 8 
books of 900 IrpoTTiyfifuira to M. Aurelius 
and L. Verus (A.D. 163). 

Polybius (nat. circ. B.C. 204), npoy^uircui, not 
Historia. Historiarum quce supersunt. 
Lips.: Holtze, 1866 ; 5 books and fragments 
out of 40. The writer was a captain in the 
field besides being an authority on military 
art, a politician, and a philosopher, who 
composed for instruction, not for amuse- 
ment. 

Pollux (Julius, A.D. 183), Onomasticon. 

Porter (Rev. J. L.), author of A Handbook for 
Travellers in Syria and Palestine. Lon- 
don : Murray, 1868 (ist edition). 

Porter (Sir Robert Ker), Travels in Georgia^ 
Persia^ Armeniay Ancient Babylonia^ &*c, 
(181 7-20), 2 vols. 4to. London : Longmans, 
1821-22. 

Procopius (nat. circ. A.D. 500), Histories^ &*c. 

Ptolemy, Geographic^. 

Ramusio (Giambattista, of Treviso, nat. 1485), 
Raccolta di Navigazioni e Viaggiy 3 vols, 
fol., 1550-59 ; the first collection of the kind, 
which gave rise to many others. 

Rawlinson (Canon George), The Five Great 
Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern IVorld^ 
6*^., 4 vols. 8vo. London : Murray, 1862-66. 

Records of the Past^ being English translations 
of the Assyrian and Egyptian monuments, 
published under the sanction of the Society 
of Biblical Archaeology, vol i. (of 12), i2mo. 
London, 1874. 

Revue Archiologique (under the direction of 
J. Gailhabaud), ann^ 1-16. Paris, 1844- 
59, 8vo. Nouvelle S^rie, ann^e i, vol. i. 
&c., i860, 8vo. T€d>le Dicennale^ nouvelle 
s^rie, 1 860-1869, dress^e par M. F. De- 
launay. Paris, 1874, 8vo. In progress. 

Rhind (A. Henry), Thebes^ its Tombs and their 
TenantSy^c. 1862. 

Richtofen (Baron Ferdinand von), China^ Ergeb- 
nisse eigener Reisen und darauf gegritn' 
deter Studien. Vol. i. published in 1877; 
vol. ii. (4to.), Remier : Berlin, 1882. It has 
not yet found a translator. 

Rivero (Mariano y Eduardo de)y Tschudi (Juan 
Diego ^€)y Antiguedades Peruanas^ i voL 
4to., with Atlas. Vienna, 1851. Travels in 
Peruy by J. J. von Tschudi, in 1838-42 ; was 



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XXX 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES, 



translated from the German by T. Ross, 
8vo. London, 1847. 

Rossellini (Prof.) / Monumenti dilV Egitto e 
delta Nubia, Pisa, 1832-41. 

Rossignol (J. P.)i Les M^taux dans PArUiquiti, 
Paris : Durand, 1863. 

Roteiro (Ruttier) da Viagem de Vasco da Gama, 
corrected by the late Professor Herculano 
and Baron do Castello de Pavia. Imprensa 
Nacional, Lisboa, mdcccli (2nd edition). 

Roug^ (Vicomte E. de), Rituel FutUraire des 
Anciens Egyptiens^ &*c,^ imp. folio. Paris, 
1861-66. 

Rougemont, L*Age de Bronze^ x866. 

Rowbotham (J. F.), •On the Art of Music in 
Prehistoric Times,* youm. Anthrop, Inst,^ 
May, 1881. 

Sacken (Baron £. von Osten-), Das Grab/eld von 
Haiisiadt und dessenAlterthiimer, Vienna, 
1868. 

Sainte-Croix (Baron de), Recherches Historiques 
et Critiques sur tes My stores du Paganisme^ 
revues et corrig^s par Silvestre de Sacy, 
2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 181 7. 

Sallust 

Sayce (Rev. A. H.), *0n the Hamathite Inscrip- 
tions,* Trans, Soc, Bibt, Archaot,^ voL iv. 
part I. Mr. Sayce has read other papers 
containing notices of more modem ' Hit- 
tite* finds; but I have failed to procure 
copies. 

Schliemann (Dr. Henry), Troy and its Remains^ 
translated and edited by Philip Smith. 
London : Murray, 1875. Mycence and 
Tiryns^ ibid- 1878. Ilios^ ibid. 1880. 

Scott (Sir Sibbald David), The British Army, 
its Origin, Progress, and Development, 2 
vols. London and New York : Cassell, 
Petter, & Galpin, 1868. 

S^vez, notice of Japanese Iron-works in Les 
Mondes, tome xxvi., Dec. 1871. 

Silius Italicus (nat A.D. 25). 

Smith (Captain John), General Historie of Vir- 
ginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, 
&*€,, foL London : Pinkerton, xiii. He 
made his first voyage in 1606, and his 
second in 1614, when he changed * North 
Virginia' into * New England.* On his 
third (161 5), he was captured by a French- 
man and landed at La Rochelle. 

Smith (George), Assyrian Discoveries, Lon- 
don : Sampson Low & Co., 6th edit, 1876. 
The learned author wore himself out by 
travel, and died young. 

Smith (Rev. W. Robertson), The Old Testament 
in the Jewish Church, Edinburgh : Blacks, 
1881. 



Smith (Dr. William), Dictionmrin. London : 
Taylor & Walton— 
I. Greek and Roman GeograpHiy^ 2 vols. 

8vo. 1856-57. 
3. Greeh and Roman Antiquities, I vol. 
Svo. 1859. 

3. Greeh and Roman Biography and 

Mythology, 3 vols. 8vo. 1858-61. 

4. Of the Bible, 3 vols. 8vo. 1863. 
Solinus (Ca. JuL Polyhistor, alias * Pliny's Ape '), 

Geographical Compendium, 
Speke (Captain James Manning), Journal of 

the Discovery of the Source of the Nile, 

Edinburgh : Blackwoods, 1863. 
Spensley (Howard), Cenni sugli Aborigeni di 

Australasia, &*c. Venezia: G. Fischer, 

1881. 
Stade (Hans), The Captivity of Hans Stade, 

translated for the Hakluyt Society by Mr. 

Albert Tootal of Rio de Janeiro. London, 

1874. 
Stanley (Henry M.), Through the Dark Contin- 
ent, &*c. London : Sampson Low, & Co., 

1874- 

Stephens (J. Lloyd), Incidents of Travel in Cen- 
tral America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, 2 
vols. 8vo. London : Murray, 1842. Germ, 
trans., Leipzig, 1843. 

Stevens (the late Edward T.), Flint Chips, 
a Guide to Prehistoric Archaology, as 
illustrated in the Blackmore Museum, 
Salisbury, 8va London : Bell and Daldy, 
187a 

Strabo (B.C. 54 ?). 

Suetonius (C. Tranquillus). 

Tacitus (Cornelius). 

Taylor (Rev. Isaac), Etruscan Researches, Lon- 
don : Macmillan, 1874. 

Texier, Description dc PAsie Mineure, Paris, 
1849-52. 

Theophrastus (B.C 305), Opera Graca et Latino, 
J. G. Schneider, 5 vols. Svo. Lipsise, 1818- 
21. 

Tylor (E. B.), Anahuac, London, 1861. Pri- 
mitive Culture, London : Murray, 1871 
(Germ, trans., 1873). Researches into the 
Early History of Mankind and the De- 
velopment of Civilisation, plates. London : 
Murray, 1870. 

Ure (Andrew), Dictionary of Arts, Manufac- 
tures, and Mines, London, 1863. 

Vallancey (General), Collectcmea de Rebus Hiber- 
nicis, 6 vols, Dublin, 1770-1804. 

Vamhagen (the late F. Adolpho de) : Historia 
Geral do Brazil, 2 vols. Svo. Laemmert : 
Rio de Janeiro, 1854. Useful as 'docu- 
ments pour servir.* 



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LIST OF AUTHORITIES, 



xxxi 



Varro (Terentius, nat. B.C. ii6), De Lingua 
Latino. 

Vegetius (FL Renatus, A.D. 375-92), De Re 
MilitarL 

VirgiL 

Vitruvius (M. Pollio, B.C. 46), Architecture^ 5 
vols. 4to. Utini, 1829. 

Volney (Const F.), (Euvres^ 8 vols. 8vo. Paris, 
1826. 

Waitz (Professor, Dr. Theodor), Anthropologie 
der Naturvblker. Leipzig, 1859-72. The 
first volume, Introduction to Anthropology , 
was translated by J. F. Collingwood and 
published by the Anthropological Society 
of London, 8vo., Longmans, 1863. The 
manuscript of the second volume of this 
valuable work, also by Mr. Collingwood, was 
long in my charge ; but the low state of an- 
thropological study in England (and other 
pursuits unprofessional, and consequently 
non-paying) prevents its being printed. 

Wilde (Sir William R.), DescHptive Catalogue 
of the Antiquities in the Royal Irish Aca^ 
demy, Dublm : Academy House, 1863. 
A Descriptive Catalogue of Materials in 
the Royal Irish Academy^ 8vo., 1857-61. 
It is regretable that part i, vol. ii., of this 
admirable work, which has become a 
standard npon the subject, has not been 
printed ; nor has the public been informed 
of any arrangements for publishing. For 
permission to make use of the cuts, which 
were obligingly furnished to Mr. Grego, 
I am indebted to the courtesy of the Council, 
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 

Wilkinson (Sir J. Gardner), The Manners and 
Customs ojthe Ancient Egyptians^ their Pri- 
vate U/e^ Government y Lcnvs^ Arts^ Religion^ 
and History (originally written in 1836), 6 
vols. 8vo. London: Murray, 1837-41. 
The author abridged his life-labour with 
the usual unsuccess,and called it A Popular 



Account of the Ancient Egyptians^ 2 vols, 
post 8vo. London : Murray, 1874. 

Wilkinson (the late Henry, the eminent Sword- 
cutler in Pall Mall), Observations on Swords ; 
to which is added Information for Officers 
going to join their Regiments in India, 
Pall Mall, London. No date. 

Willemin, Choix des Costumes Civiles et Mili- 
taires, Paris, 1798. 

Wilson (Daniel), Archctology and Prehistoric 
Annals of Scotland, Edinburgh : Suther- 
land and Knox, 8vo., mdcccli. Prehistoric 
Man^ 2 vols. 8vo. London : Macmillan, 
1862. 

Wright (the late Thomas), * On the True Assign- 
ation of the Bronze Weapons,* &c.. Trans, 
Ethno, Soc, new series, voL iv. 

Woldrich (Prof. h,\ Mittheilungen der Wien, 
Anthrop, Cesell, Wien, 1874. 

Wood (John George), Natural History of Man^ 
being an Account of the Manners and CuS" 
toms of the Uncivilised Ways of Men^ 2 
vols., 1868-70, 8vo. 

Worsaae (J. J. A.), Afbildninger fra det Kon, 
Afus.for Nordiske Oldsager i Kfobnhavn^ 
Ordnede og forklarede af J. J. A. W. (aided 
by Magnus Petersen and Aagaard). Kjobn- 
havn : Kittendorf, and Aagaard, 1859. 
The order is in careful accordance with the 
Three Ages, Worsaae*s Prehistoric Annals 
of Denmark were translated by W. J. Knox, 
8vo., London, 1849, and there is a Lett* 
faden der Nordischen Alterthumerskunde 
by Worsaae, Kopenhagen, 1837. 

Wurmbrand (Count Gutaker), Ergebnisse der 
Pfahlbcuiuntersuchungen, Wien, 1875. 

Yule (Colonel Henry), The Book of Marco Polo 
the Venetian, 2nd edit London : Murray, 
1875. The learned and exact writer 
favoured me with a copy of his admirable 
work, without which it is vain to read of * The 
Kingdoms and the Marvels of the East.' 



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CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 'AGE 

FOREWORD . . . . ix 

INTRODUCTION xi 

LIST OF AUTHORITIES xxiii 

I. PREAMBLE: ON THE ORIGIN OF WEAPONS i 

n. MAN'S FIRST WEAPONS— THE STONE AND THE STICK. THE EARLIEST 

AGES OF WEAPONS. THE AGES OF WOOD, OF BONE, AND OF HORN i6 

III. THE WEAPONS OF THE AGE OF WOOD : THE BOOMERANG AND THE 

SWORD OF WOOD ; OF STONE, AND OF WOOD AND STONE COMBINED 31 

IV. THE PROTO-CHALCITIC OR COPPER AGE OF WEAPONS . . . S3 

V. THE SECOND CHALCITIC AGE OF ALLOYS— BRONZE, BRASS, ETC. : THE 

AXE AND THE SWORD 74 

VL THE PROTO-SIDERIC OR EARLY IRON AGE OF WEAPONS . . .97 

VIL THE SWORD: WHAT IS IT? 123 

VIII. THE SWORD IN ANCIENT EGYPT AND IN MODERN AFRICA . . 143 

IX. THE SWORD IN KHITA-LAND, PALESTINE AND CANAAN ; PHCENICIA AND 

CARTHAGE; JEWRY, CYPRUS, TROY, AND ETRURIA . . . 17a 

X. THE SWORD IN BABYLONIA, ASSYRIA AND PERSIA, AND ANCIENT INDIA 199 

XL THE SWORD IN ANCIENT GREECE : HOMER ; HESIOD AND HERODOTUS : 

MYCEN.E 2ao 

XIL THE SWORD IN ANCIENT ROME: THE LEGION AND THE GLADIATOR. 244 

Xin. THE SWORD AMONGST THE BARBARIANS (EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE) . 26a 

CONCLUSION 280 

INDEX 281 



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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PIC. 'AGS 

I. Indian WXgh-nakh .... 8 

a. WXgh-nakh, used by MarXthXs . . 8 

3. Balistbs Capriscus ; Gottus Dicbraus; 

Naseus F&onticornis ... 9 

4. Spear of Narwhal ; Sword of Xiphias ; 

Rhinoceros- Horn ; Walrus Tusks . 10 

5. Narwhal's Sword Piercing Plank . 10 

6. Metal Daggers with Horn Curve « 10 

7. MXdu or MXru II 

8. The Adaga 12 

9. Serrated or Multibarbed Weapons . 13 

10. Weapons made of Shark's Teeth . , 13 

11. Italian Dagger, with Grooves and 

Holes for Poison . . . .13 

12. Sword with Serrated Blade of Saw- 

Fish 13 

13. Ancient Egyptians Throwing Knives 18 

14. Japanese War-Flail . . . .21 

15. Turkish War-Flail . . . . 21 

16. Morning Star 21 

17. Deer-Horn Arrow-Head . . . 24 

18. Horn War Clubs with Metal Points 24 

19. Double Spear and Shield • . . 24 
2a Spine of Diodon 24 

21. Walrus Tooth used as Spear Point; 

Tomahawk of Walrus Tooth . . 24 

22. Sting of Malaccan Limulus Crab . 25 

23. The Greenland Nuguit • . .25 

24. Narwhal Shaft and Metal Blade . 25 

25. Jade Pattu-Pattus . , . .25 

26. Bone Arrow-Point for Poison ; Iron 

Arrow-Head for Poison . . . 26 

27. Wilde's Dagger 26 

28. Hollow Bone for Poison . . . 26 



PIG. PAGE 

29. Bone Knife 26 

3a Bone Arrow-Point armed with Flint 

Flakes 26 

31. Bone Splinter EDGED WITH Flint Flakes 26 

32. Harpoon Head 29 

33. LisXn in Egypt and Abyssinia . . 32 

34. LisXn or Tongue 32 

35. Transition from the Boomerang to 

THE Hatchet 34 

36. Australian Picks 34 

37. Indian BoomutANGS . . .35 

38. Boomerang and Kits , . . . 36 

39. African Boomerangs .... 36 

40. Transition from the Malga, Leowbl 

or Pick to the Boomerang . . 37 

41. The Stick and the Shield . ' . .38 

42. Throw-sticks 38 

43. Old Egyptian Boomerang ... 39 

44. BuLAK Sword 39 

45. Hieroglyphic Inscrifhon on Wooden 

Sword of Bulak . . . .39 

46. Transition from Celt to Paddlb 

Spear and Sword Forms . . . 41 

47. Clubs of Fiji Islands . . . .41 

48. Wooden Swords and Clubs of Bra- 

zilian Indians 41 

49. Pagaya, Sharpened Paddle . . 42 

50. Clubs 43 

51. Paddles 43 

52. Samoan Club 44 

53. WooDBN Sabre 44 

54. Wooden Chopper 44 

55. Knife (Wood), from Vanna Lava . 44 



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XXXVJ 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



FIG. PAGE 

56. Irish Sword 45 

57. Wooden Rapier-Blade . . , .45 

58. Fragments of Stone Knives from 

Shetland 46 

59. Flint Daggers 46 

60. Australian Spears armed with Flints 

AT SIDE 48 

61. Sword of Sabre Form, with Sharks* 

Teeth 48 

62. Ditto, armed with Obsidian . . . 48 

63. Wood- and Horn-Points . . .49 

64. Mexican Sword of the Fifteenth 

Century, of Iron Wood, with Ten 
Blades of Black Obsidian fixed 
into the Wood 49 

65. Mahquahuitls so 

66. Mexican Warrior 50 

67. Mexican Sword, Iron-Wood, armed 

WITH Obsidian 50 

68. Mexican Spear-Head (Fifteenth Cen- 

tury), Black Obsidian, with Wooden 
HandIe 50 

69. New Zealand Club . . . * 50 

70. Australian Spears, with bits of Obsi- 

dian, Crystal, or Glass . . . 51 

71. Italian Poison Daggers . . .51 

72. Arab Sword, with Down - curved 

Quillons, and Saw Blade . . . 51 

73. Sephuris at Wady Magharah (oldest 

Rock Tablets). Third Dynasty . 61 

74. SoRis and the Canaanites at Wady 

Magharah (oldest Rock Tablets). 
Fourth Dynasty 61 

75. Tablet of Suphis and Nu-Suphis at 

Wady Magharah. (Fourth Dy- 
nasty.) 62 

76. The Winged Celt, or Palstave . . 71 

77. Copper Celts in the Dublin Collec- 

tion 7a 

78. Scythe-shaped Blade , . . . 73 

79. Straight Blade • . . • . 73 

80. Straight Blade . • • ' 73 
8i. Scythe-shaped Blade ... - 73 

82, Fine Specimen of Egyptian Dagger 

IN possession of Mr. Hayns, brought 
by Mr. Harris from Thebes . . 80 

83. Bronze Knife, from the Pile- Vil- 

lages of NeuchAtel. . . 82 



FIG. 

84. Peruvian Knife. Metal Blade, 
secured in a Slit in the Haft by 
strong Cotton Twine 



82 
88 
88 



88 
89 
89 
91 
91 
91 
92 

93 



93 
94 
94 



85. Oldest Form (?) ... 

86. Metal Celts 

87. Knife found at R£alon (Hautes 

Alpes) 

88. The Glaive 

89. Egyptian Axes of Bronze 

90. Irish Battle- Axe .... 

91. Axe used by Bruce . 

92. German Processional Axe . 

93. Halbards 

94. Halbards 

95. Bechwana's Club Axe; The Same, 

Expanded ; The Same, Barbed ; Si 
LEPE of the Basutos ; Horseman's 
Axe of the Sixteenth Century 

96. Hindu Hatchet from Rajputana 

97. German Hatchet of Bronze Period 

98. BURGUNDIAN AXE ; FRANCISQUE OR 

Taper Axe 94 

99. Iron Scram asax 94 

100. ScRAMASAx 94 

loi. Gunnar's Bill 95 

102. VOULGES 95 

103. Egyptian Sacrificial Knives (Iron) ioi 

104. Iron Smelting Furnace amongst 

the MarAve People . . . . 118 

105. Portable African Bellows . » 121 

106. The Italian Foil 125 

107. Pommel; Quillons; Pas d*Ane . 125 

108. Double Guard (Guard and Counter- 

guard) 125 

109. Straight Quillons and Loops . 125 

110. Fantastic Form 125 

111. The Three Forms of the Sword . 126 

112. Delivering Point. . . • . 127 

113. The Infantry 'Regulation' Sword 129 

114. ScYMiTAR. 130 

115. Claymore 130 

116. 1 Diagrams illustrating the Direct | 
117.) and the Oblique Cut . . • ) 

118. Sections of Sword-Blades . . 131 

119. Foil with French Guard . • • 133 

120. Regulation Sword for Infantry . 133 



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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



XXXVll 



PIG. 

121. 
122. 

"3. 

124. 
125. 
126. 
127. 
128. 
129. 
130. 
131. 
132. 
133. 

■34. 
135. 
136. 
137. 
138. 
139. 
140. 
141. 
142. 

143. 
144- 
145. 
146. 

147. 
148. 
149. 
15a 
151. 
152. 

153. 
154. 

155. 
156. 



157. 

158. 

159. 
160. 



Scymitar-Shape . 

Yataghan .... 

Ornamental Yataghan and Sheath 

Sections of Thrusting-Swords 

Pierced Blade . 

Pierced Blade and Sheath 

Flamberge .... 

German Main-Gauche . 

Paternoster 

Malay KrIs .... 

Wave-Edged Dagger 

Saw-Tooth Blade. 

Main-Gauche . 

Sword-Breakers . . * . 

One-Edged Wave Blade . 

counterguard 

Toothed-Edge . 

Hooked-Edge 

Executioner's Sword 

Japanese Type 

Chinese Sabre-Knife 

Old Persian Sword 

scymitar . • . . 

Old Turkish .... 

Chinese .... 

Old Turkish Scymitar 

The DAo .... 

Sailor's Cutlass . 

Hindu KitXr 

Gold Coast .... 

Bronze Dagger ; Sword . 

Single-stick in Egypt . 

Egyptian Soldier and Shield 

Egyptian Soldiers 

Egyptian Soldier 

Egyptians Fighting, from Paintings 
OK Thebes ; Egyptian Soldiers, 
from Theban Bas-Reliefs 

Bronze Hatchets in Wooden Han 
DLEs, Bound with Thongs 

Pole-axes .... 

Kheten or War-axes 

Different Forms of the Egyptian 
Khopsh (Kopis), with Edges Inside 
and Outside 



PACE 
133 


PIC 

161. 


134 




134 




135 


162. 


136 


163. 


136 




136 


164. 


136 




136 


165. 


137 






166. 


137 




U7 






167. 


137 


168. 


n8 






i6g. 


138 




138 


170. 


138 


171. 


138 


172. 


139 


173. 


139 


174. 


139 


175. 


139 


176. 


139 


177. 


140 


178, 


140 


179. 


140 


180. 


140 


181. 


140 


182. 


140 


183. 


141 


184. 


145 


185. 




186, 


153 




»53 


187. 




188. 


153 




>53 


189. 




190. 


153 


191. 




192. 


154 




154 


193. 


154 


194. 




195. 


156 


196. 



IN 



Egyptian Sling ; Unknown Weapon 

Sheathed Dagger ; Hatchet 

Scorpion, or Whip-Goad 
Egyptian Daggers 
Egyptian Dagger of Bronze 

British Museum 
Officer of Life-Guard to Rameses 
n., apparently Asiatic 
Bronze Sword, found at Al-Kan 

TARAH, Egypt 
Axe ; Spear-Head ; Khopsh ; Lance- 

Head . 
Belt and Dagger 
Egyptian Daggers 
Assyrian Daggers, Sheaths, and 

Belts .... 
Short Sword from Caucasus 
Egyptian Chopper-Swords 
Egyptian Khopsh . 
Bronze Daggers and Sheath 
Shapes of Egyptian Blades 
Sword-Daggers . 
Abyssinian Sword, a Large Sickle 
Smaller Abyssinian Blade . 
Abyssinian Sword in Sheath 
Flissa of Kabyles 
Dankali Sword 
Congo Sword . 
Unyoro Dagger-Sword 
Zanzibar Swords 
Gold Goast Swords . 
AsHANTi Sword-Knife 
Swords of King Gelele of Dahomy 
Beheading Sword 
Wasa (Wassaw) Sword 
King Blay's Sword 
Captain Cameron's Manyuema 

SwoRDLET, Sheath, and Belt 

POKW£ OF THE CaZEMBE's ChIEFS 

Gaboon Swords, both evidently 
Egyptian 

Cleaver of the Habshi People 

Prankish Blade, with Mid-Groove 
OUT OF Centre 

Cyprian Dagger 

Novacula . 




157 
157 

157 

157 

157 

158 
158 
158 

159 
160 
160 
160 
161 
161 
161 
164 
164 
164 
164 
165 
165 
166 
166 
167 
167 
167 
168 
168 
168 

169 
170 

170 
170 

171 
173 
189 



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XXXVllI 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



nc. 
197. 
198. 

199. 
300. 

201. 
ao2. 
ao3. 

204. 
205. 
206. 



207. 
208. 
209. 
210. 
211. 
212. 
213. 
214. 
215. 
216. 
217. 

218. 

219. 
220. 
221. 



22. 
223. 
224. 
225. 
226. 
227. 
228. 

229. 
230. 

231. 
232. 

233. 



FACB 

NOVACULA? 189 

NovACULA, Sickle? Razor? . . 189 

Silver Dagger 189 

Copper Sword from the 'Treasury 

OF Priam' 192 

Marzabotto Blade . . . . i9S 

Assyrian Sword 199 

Assyrian Lance, with Counter- 
weight 203 

Assyrian Spear-Head . . . 203 

Assyrian • Razor ' 203 

Babylonian Bronze Dagger; Assy- 
rian Swords; Assyrian Bronze- 
Sword 204 

Dagger-Sword in Sheath . . . 204 

Dagger-Sword 204 

Club-Sword 204 

Fancy Sword 204 

Assyrian Swords 205 

Assyrian Swords .... 205 

Assyrian Dagger 205 

Assyrio-Babylonian Archer . . 206 
Assyrian Foot Soldier . . . 206 
Assyrian Soldier Hunting Game . 206 
Foot Soldier of the Army of Sen- 
nacherib (B.C. 712-707) . . . 206 
Assyrian Warrior, with Sword 

AND Staff 206 

Assyrian Warriors at a Lion Hunt 206 

Assyrian Eunuch .... 206 
Bronze Sword, bearing the Name 
of Vul-nirari L, found near 

DiARBEKR 208 

Persian Archer 209 

Persian Warrior 209 

The Persian Cidaris, or Tiara . 209 

Persian Acinaces 210 

Persian Acinaces , . , .210 
Sword from Mithras Group . . 210 
Sword in Relief, Persepolis Sculp- 
tures 210 

Persian Acinaces . . , . . 211 

Dagger-forms from Persepolis . 211 

Acinaces of Persepolis . , . 212 
Acinaces of Mithras Group . .212 

HiNDiJ Warriors 215 



rta FACE 

234. Javanese Blade, showing Indian 

DERIVATION ; HlNDT^ SaBRB . .215 

235. Battle-Scene from a Cave in Cut- 

tack, First Century A.D. . . 216 

236. The First Highlander . . . 217 

237. Arjuna's Sword 217 

238. Javanese Sculptures with Bent 

Swords 218 

239. PeshAwar Sculptures . . . . 218 

240. Two-edged Bronze Sword and Ala- 

baster Knob, Mycen/e . . . 223 

241. Gold Shoulder-Belt, with Frag- 

ment OF Two-Edged Bronze Rapier 228 

242. Blade from Mycen^c . . . 229 

243. A Long Gold Plate . . . . 229 

244. Weapons from Mycen^b . . . 229 

245. Sword Blades from Mycen^c . . 229 

246. Sword-Blades from MvcENiC . . 230 

247. Bronze Lancehead (?) . . . . 230 

248. Two-Edged Bronze Sword and Dag- 

ger 230 

249. Two-Edged Bronze Swords and 

Alabaster Knob . . . . 231 

250. Rapier Blades of Mycen^c . . 232 

251. Warrior with Sword . . . . 232 

252. Bronze Sword found in the Palace, 

MYCENiE 233 

253. Bronze Dagger : Two Blades Sol- 

dered 233 

254. PhXsganon 23s * 

255. Greek PhXsgana 235 

256. Short Sword (PhXsganon) of Bronze, 

found in Crannog at Peschiara, 

and probably Greek • . . 235 

257. Two-Edged Bronze Sword and 

Alabaster Pommel . . . . 236 

258. Kopis WITH Pommel .... 236 

259. Kopis with Hook 236 

260. Kukkri Blade of Ghurkas . . 236 

261. The DANfsKO 237 

262. Greek Xiphos 238 

263. Gallo-Greek Sword . . . . 238 

264. Gallo-Greek Sword .... 238 

265. Mayence Blade 238 

266. Gallo-Greek Blade and Sheath . 238 

267. Bronze Parazonium . . . . 239 



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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



XXXIX 



riG. PACB 

268. 'HoPLiTEs' (Heavy Armed) . . 240 

269. Greek Combatants with Sword and 

L.ANCB 240 

270. Roman Soldier 246 

271. Helmets of Hastarii (from Trajan's 

Column) ; Helmets of Hastarii ; 

Bronze Helmet (from CANNiE) . 246 

272. Hastatus (from Trajan's Column) . 247 

273. Centurion's Cuirass, with Phaler^e 

OR Decorations 248 

274. Roman Sword ; Gladius . . .255 

275. Bronze Two-Edged Early Roman 

Ensis 255 

276. Sword of Roman Auxiliary . . 255 

277. Roman Sword 255 

278. Sword and Vagina (Sheath) . . 256 



279. Sword and Vagina (Sheath) 

280. The Pugio 

281. Two-Edged Roman Stilettos 

282. Sword of Tiberius , 

283. German or Slav Sword 

284. SCRAMASAX FROM HaLLSTADT 

285. Danish Scramasax 

286. Blade and Handle of Bronze 

Part of Eagle 

287. Gallic Sword of Bronze . 

288. Sword found at Augsburg 

289. Bronze 

290. The Spatha of Schleswig 

291. Short Keltic Sword . 

292. Danish Sword ... 

293. British Sword, Bronze 



with 



FACE 
256 

256 

257 

258 

263 

263 

263 

265 
266 
270 
271 

272 

272 

274 
278 



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THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

CHAPTER I. 
preamble: on the origin op' weapons. 

Man's civilisation began with Fire — how to light it and how to keep it lit. Before 
he had taken this step, our primal ancestor (or ancestors) evidently led the life of 
the lower animals. The legend of *Iapetus' bold son' Prometheus, like many 
others invented by the Greeks, or rather borrowed from Egypt, contained under 
the form of fable a deep Truth, a fact, a lesson valuable even in these days. * Fore- 
thought,* the elder brother of 'Afterthought,* brought down the seminaflammce in 
a hollow tube from Heaven, or stole it from the chariot of the Sun. Here we have 
the personification of the Great Unknown, who, finding a cane-brake or a jungle 
tree fired by lightning or flamed by wind-friction, conceived the idea of feeding 
the airepim irvpos with fuel. Thus Hermes or Mercury was * Pterop^dilos * or 
* Alipes ; * and his ankles were fitted with * Pedila ' or * Talaria,* winged sandals, to 
show that the soldier fights with his legs as well as with his arms.^ 

I will not enlarge upon the imperious interest of Hoplology : the history of 
arms and armour, their connection and their transitions, plays the most important 
part in the annals of the world. 

The first effort of human technology was probably weapon-making. History 

* Frederick the Great declared that an army and Arab litholatry, and the old Palladium of Troy 

moves like a serpent, upon its belly. According to transported to Rome. 'Prometheus,' who taught 

Plutarch, the snake was held sacred because it glides man to preserve fire in the ferule, or stalk, of the 

without limbs, like the stars. Fire, says Pliny (Nat, giant fennel, was borrowed by the Hindus and con- 

Bist. vii. 57, and xiii. 42), was first struck out of verted into Pramantha. *Pramantha,' however, is the 

the stone by Pyrodes, son of Ciluc— silex^ or flint, upright fire-stick, first made by Twastu, the Divine 

the match of antiquity ; and hence it was called irvp ; Carpenter, who seems to have been a brother of 

and Vincent de Beauvais explains i * Silex est lapis 'Eorfo, the Hearth ; and hence it has been held to be 

durus, sic dictus eo quod ex eo ignis exiliat.' It the male symbol. According to Plato, ifvp (whence 

. ,, o , ., r^^^ , VI K ^ u *i. J pyrites = sulphuret of iron), 05«p, and K<tap are 

« the Sanskrit f^^ (shla), a stone, both words ^^^^^ ^^^^^ . ^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^ j^,^ ^^^^ ^^^ 

evidently deriving from a common root, shi or si, remotest antiquity. Pir (sun-heat) is found even in 

The * religiosa silex ' of Claudian {Rapt, Proserp, the Quichua of Peru, and enters into the royal name 

i. 201) was probably a block of stone like those re- *Pirhua.* The French and Belgian caverns prove 

presenting Zeus Kasios, the Paphian Venus, not to that striking fire by means of pyrites was known to 

mention the host of stones worshipped in Egyptian primitive man. 

h< ^ 

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2 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

and travel tell us of no race so rude as to lack artificial means of offence and 
defence.* To these, indeed, man's ingenuity and artistic efforts must, in his simple 
youthtide, have been confined. I do not allude to the complete man, created full- 
grown in body and mind by the priestly castes of Egypt, Phoenicia, Judaea, Assyria, 
Persia, and India, The Homo sapiens whom we have to consider is the * Adam 
Kadmon,* ^ not of the Cabbalist, but of the anthropologist, as soon as he raised 
himself above the beasts of the field by superiority of brains and hands. 

The lower animals are bom armed, but not weaponed. The arm, indeed, is 
rather bestial than human : the weapon is, speaking generally, human, not bestial. 
Naturalists have doubted, and still doubt, whether in the so-called natural state 
the lower animals use weapons properly so termed. Colonel A. Lane Fox, a 
diligent student of primitive warfare, and a distinguished anthropologist,' distinctly 
holds the hand-stone to be tJie prehistoric weapon. He quotes (Cat. pp. 156-59) 
the ape using the hand-stone to crack nutshells ; the gorillas defending themselves 
against the Carthaginians of Hanno ; and Pedro de Cieza (Cie^a) de Leon * 
telling us that 'when the Spaniards [in Peru] pass under the trees where the 
monkeys are, these creatures break off branches and throw them down, making 
faces all the time.* Even in the days of Strabo (xv. i) it was asserted that 
Indian monkeys climb precipices, and roll down stones upon their pursuers— a 
favourite tactic with savages. Nor, indeed, is it hard to believe that the Simiads, 
whose quasi-human hand has prehensile powers, bombard their assailants with 
cocoa-nuts and other missiles. Major Denham (1821-24), a trustworthy traveller, 
when exploring about Lake Chad, says of the quadrumans of the Yeou country : 
* The monkeys, or, as the Arabs say, men enchanted {Beny Adam mesfiood)^ were 
so numerous that I saw upwards of a hundred and fifty assembled at one place 
in the evening. They did not appear at all inclined to give up their ground, 
but, perched on the top of a bank some twenty feet high, made a terrible noise, 
and, rather gently than otherwise, pelted us as we approached within a certain 
distance.' Herr Holub,* also, was * designedly aimed at by a herd of African 

> There are still races which are unable to kindle highly-interesting volume. The Spaniard travelled 

fire. This is asserted of the modem Andamanese by in A.D. 1532-50, published the first part of his work 

an expert, Mr. H. Man, Joum, Anthrvp, Inst, in 1553, and died about 1560. Readers who would 

Feb. 1882, p. 272. The same was the case with study the most valuable anthropological parts of the 

the quondam aborigines of Tasmania. book are driven to the French translation quoted by 

« This Adam Primus was of both sexes, the biune Vicente Fidel Lopez {Les Races Aryennes du Pt^rau, 

parent of Genesis (v. 3) — 'male and female created p. 199. Paris, Franck, 1873). 

He them ; ' hence the pre- Adamites of Moslem be- » We need not go to the classics, Greek and 

lief. The capital error of Biblical readers in our day Roman, for the idea of metamorphosis. It is common 

is to assume all these myths and mysteries as mere to mankind, doubtless arising from the resemblance 

historical details. Men had a better appreciation of beast to man in appearance, habits, or disposition ; 

of the Hebrew arcana in the days of Philo Judoeus. and it may date from the days when the lower was 

■ I have noted his labours in the list of 'Authorities.* all but equal to the higher animal. 

* Chap. iii. p. 43, translated for the Hakluyt • Seven Years in South Africa^ 1872-79, vol. L 

Society by Clements R. Markham, C.B. (London, p. 245, and vol. ii. p. 199 (Sampson Low and Co., 

1869). It is regretable that a senile Committee 1 881). The Simiads were African baboons, which 

of exceeding * properness * cut out so much of this fear man less than those of other continents. 



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THE ORIGIN OF WEAPONS, 3 

baboons perched among the trees ; * and on another occasion he and his men had 
to beat an ignominious retreat from * our cousins.* * Hence/ suggests Colonel 
A. Lane Fox, *our "poor relation" conserves, even when bred abroad and in 
captivity, the habit of violently shaking the branch by jumping upon it with all 
Its weight, in order that the detached fruit may fall upon the assailant's head/ 
In Egypt, as we see from the tomb-pictures, monkeys (baboons or cynocephali) 
were taught to assist in gathering fruit, and in acting as torch-bearers. While 
doing this last duty, their innate petulance caused many a merry scene.* 

I never witnessed this bombardment by monkeys. But when my regiment 
was stationed at Baroda in Gujardt, several of my brother officers and myself saw 
an elephant use a weapon. The intelligent animal, which the natives call Hdthi 
(* the handed * *), was chained to a post during the dangerous season of the wet fore- 
head, and was swaying itself in ill-temper from side to side. Probably offended 
by the sudden appearance of white faces, it seized with its trunk a heavy billet, and 
threw it at our heads with a force and a good will that proved the worst intention. 

According to Captain Hall— who, however, derived the tale from the Eskimos,* 
the sole living representatives of the palaeolithic age in Europe — the polar dear, 
traditionally reported to throw stones, rolls down, with its quasi-human forepaws, 
rocks and boulders upon the walrus when found sleeping at the foot of some over- 
hanging cliff. * Meister Petz ' aims at the head, and finally brains the stunned 
prey with the same weapon. Perhaps the account belongs to the category of the 
ostrich throwing stones, told by many naturalists, including Pliny (x. i), when, as 
Father Lobo explained in his * Abyssinia,' the bird only kicks them up during 
its scouring flight Similar, too, is the exploded shooting-out of the porcupine's 
quills, whereby, according to mediaeval * Shoe-tyes * ^ men have been badly hurt 



' Wilkinson, I. I. Unruliness was punished by Askimegy or the Abcnakin Eskimantsu^ meaning 

'stick and no supper.* The old Nile-dwellers, * eaters of raw flesh.* Old usage applies it to the 

like the Carthaginians and the mediaeval Tartars, races of extreme North America, and of the Asiatic 

were famous for taming and training the wildest shore immediately opposite. Innuit^ a more modem 

animals, the cat o* mountain, leopards, crocodiles, term, signifies only * the people,* like A^^Z-Mm (* men 

and gazelles. The * war-lions of the king* (Ramses of men*), the Hottentots, and like * Bantu * (Folk), ap- 

II.) are famed in history. They also taught domestic plied, or rather misapplied, to the great South African 

cats to retrieve waterfowl, and decoy-ducks to cater race. Innuiiy moreover, is by no means universal, 

or the table. The Eskimos supply a valuable study ; amongst other 

* Thus Lucretius (v. 1301) calls the elephant primeval peculiarities, they have little reverence for 

'anguinfinus.* As is well known, there is a quasi- the dead, and scant attachment to place, 
specific difference between the Indian and the African 

animal. The latter is shorter, stouter, and more * 'Brave Master Shoe-tye, the great traveller* 

compactly built than the former ; the shape of the {Measure for Measure^ iv. 3). The tale of porcu- 

frontal bones differ, the tusks are larger and heavier, pines * shooting their quills at the dogs, which get 

and the ears are notably longer. The latter trait many a serious wound thereby,* is in M. Polo (i. 28). 

appears even in old coins. Judging from the illus- Colonel Yule quotes Pliny, ^lian, and the Chinese, 

trated papers, I should not hesitate to pronounce the The animal drops its loose quills when running, and 

far-famed Jumbo to be an Asiatic, and not, as usually when at bay attempts, hedgehog-like, to hide and 

held, an Afirican. shield its head. It is, as the Gypsies know, excellent 

■ The word wrongly written * Esquimaux,* which eating, equal to the most delicate pork ; only seme- 
suggests a French origin, is derived from the Ojihwa what dry without the aid of lard. 



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4 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

and even killed. On the other hand, the Emu kicks like an Onager ' and will 
drive a man from one side of a quarter-deck to the other. 

But though Man s first work was to weapon himself, we must not believe with 
the Cynics and the Humanitarians that his late appearance in creation, or rather on 
the stage of life, initiated an unvarying and monotonous course of destructiveness. 
The great tertiary mammals which preceded him, the hoplotherium, the deino- 
therium, and other -theria, made earth a vast scene of bloodshed to which his 
feeble powers could add only a few poor horrors. And even in our day the pre- 
datory fishes, that have learned absolutely nothing from man's inhumanity to man, 
habitually display as much ferocity as ever disgraced savage human nature. 

Primitive man — the post-tertiary animal — was doomed by the very conditions 
of his being and his media to a life of warfare ; a course of offence to obtain his 
food, and of defence to retain his life. Ulysses^ says pathetically : 

No thing frailer of force than Man earth breedeth and feedeth ; 
Man ever feeblest of all on th' Earth's face creeping and crawling. 

The same sentiment occurs in the * Iliad ' ; and Pliny, the pessimist, writes — * the 
only tearful animal, Man.* 

The career of these wretches, who had neither * minds ' nor * souls,' was one 
long campaign against ravenous beasts and their * brother ' man-brutes. Peace 
was never anything to them but a fitful interval of repose. The golden age of 
the poets was a dream ; as Videlou remarked, * Peace means death for all bar- 
barian races.* The existence of our earliest ancestors was literally the Battle of 
Life. Then, as now, the Great Gaster was the first Master of Arts, and War was 
the natural condition of humanity upon which depends the greater part of its pro- 
gress, its rising from the lower to the higher grade. Hobbism, after all, is partly 
right : * Men were by nature equal, and their only social relation was a state of 
war.* Like the children of our modem day, helpless and speechless, primaeval 
Homo possessed, in common with his fellow-creatures, only the instincts necessary 
for self-support under conditions the most facile. Uncultivated thought is not 
rich in the productive faculty ; the brain does not create ideas : it only combines 
them and evolves the novelty of deduction, and the development of what is found 
existing. Similarly in language, onomatopoeia, the imitation of natural sounds, 
the speech of Man's babyhood, still endures ; and to it we owe our more pictur- 
esque and life-life expressions. But, despite their feeble powers, compulsory 
instruction, the Instructor being Need, was continually urging the Savage and 
the Barbarian to evolve safety out of danger, comfort out of its contrary. 

For man, compelled by necessity of his nature to weapon himself, bears within 

' Ammianus Marcellinus (xxiii. chap. 4), quoted in chap. 2. 

* Odyss, xviii. 130, 131. *Qui multum peregrinatur, rar6 sanctificatur,' said the theologians. Hence 
the modem : — 

WTioso wanders like Ulysses 
Soon shall lose his prejudices. 



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THE ORIGIN OF WEAPONS, 5 

hi m the two great principles of Imitation and Progress. Both are, after a fashion, 
his peculiar attributes, being rudimentary amongst the lower animals, though by 
no means wholly wanting. His capacity of language, together with secular deve- 
lopment of letters and literature, enabled him to accumulate for himself, and to 
transmit to others, a store of experience acquired through the medium of the 
senses ; and this, once gained, was never wholly lost. By degrees immeasurably 
slower than among civilised societies, the Savage digested and applied to the 
Present and to the Future the hoarded wisdom of the Past The imitative faculty, 
a preponderating advantage of the featherless biped over the quadruped, taught 
the former, even in his infancy, to borrow ad libitum^ while he lent little or nothing. 
As a quasi-solitary Hunter* he was doomed to fray and foray, to destroying 
others in order to preserve himself and his family : a condition so constant and 
universal as to include all others. Become a Shepherd, he fought man and beast 
to preserve and increase his flocks and herds ; and rising to an Agriculturist, he was 
ever urged to break the peace by greed of gain, by ambition, and by the instinc- 
tive longing for excitement^ 

But there was no absolute point of separation, as far as the material universe 
is concerned, to mark the dawn of a new * creative period ' ; and the Homo Dar- 
winiensis made by the Aristotle of our age, the greatest of English naturalists, is 
directly connected with the Homo sapiens. There are hosts of imitative animals, 
birds as well as beasts ; but the copying-power is essentially limited. Moreover, 
it is * instinctive,* the work of the undeveloped, as opposed to * reasoning,* the 
process of the highly-developed brain and nervous system. Whilst man has 
taught himself to articulate, to converse, the dog, which only howled and whined, 
has learned nothing except to bark. Man, again, is capable of a development 
whose bounds we are unable to determine ; whereas the beast, incapable of self- 
culture, progresses, under the most favourable circumstances, automatically and 
within comparatively narrow bounds. 

Upon the imitative faculty and its exercise I must dwell at greater length. It 
is regretable that the delicious wisdom of Pope neglected to point out the great 
lesson of the animal-world in suggesting and supplying the arts of offence and 
defence : — 

Go, from the creatures thy instructions take . . . 

Thy arts of building from the bee receive ; 

Learn from the mole to plough, the worm to weave ; 

' Sir John Lubbock has calculated that among instinctive in man,* and that human remains would 

the North American savages the proportion of man be buried, we here find one cause of the present 

to the animals which feed him is I to 750 ; and, as insufficiency of the geologic record, 
the hunter is at least four times as long-lived as his * M. Eduard Pietri distributes Prehistoric Archeo- 

prey, the ratio might be increased, i to 3000. If this logy proper into two ages, the Agreutic and the 

were so, and all the bones were preserved, there Georgic. Under the former he classifies the Bary- 

would be 3,000 bestial skeletons to one human. lithic (glacial Drift age) and the Leptolithic Under 

Without assuming with Mr. Evans (p. 584) that the Georgic are included the Neolithic, th« Chalcitic 

* respect for the dead may be regarded as almost (copper and bronze), and the Proto-sideric. 



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6 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

Learn from the little nautilus to sail, 

Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale.' 

Man, especially in the tropical and sub-tropical zones — his early, if not his 
earliest, home, long ago whelmed beneath the ocean waves — would derive many a 
useful hint from the dreadful armoury of equinoctial vegetation ; the poison-trees 
the large strong spines of the Acacia and the Mimosa, e^. the Wait-a-bit {Acacia 
detinens)y the Gleditschia, the Socotrine Aloe, the American Agave, and the piercing 
thorns of the Caryota urens^ and certain palms. The aboriginal races would be 
further instructed in offensive and defensive arts by the powerful and destructive 
feres of the sunny river-plains, where the Savage was first induced to build per- 
manent abodes. 

Before noting the means of attack and protection which Nature suggested, we 
may distribute Hoplology, the science of arms and weapons of offence and defence, 
human and bestial, into two great orders, of which the latter can be subdivided 
into four species : — 

1. Missile. 

2. Armes (Thast — a. Percussive or striking; b. Thrusting, piercing, or ram- 

ming ; c. Cutting or ripping ; d. Notched or serrated. 

Colonel A. Lane Fox (*Prim. Warfare,' p. ii) thus clcissifies the weapons of 
* Animals and Savages * : — 



Defensive. 


Offensive. 


Stratagems. 


Hides 


Piercing 


Flight 


Solid plates 


Striking 


Ambush 


Jointed plates 


Serrated 


Tactics 


Scales 


Poisoned 


Columns 




Missiles 


Leaders 
Outposts 

Artificial defences 
War cries 



My list is less comprehensive, and it bears only upon the origin of the Artne 
blanche. 

L As has been said, the missile, the fieXos, is probably the first form of weapon, 
and is still the favourite with savage Man. It favours the natural self-preservative 
instinct El-Khauf maksum — ^"fear is distributed,' — say the Arabs. 'The shorter 
the weapon the braver the wielder ' has become a well-established fact The savage 
Hunter, whose time is his own, would prefer the missile ; but the Agriculturist, 
compelled to be at home for seed-time and harvest, would choose the hand-to-hand 

' Essay ofi Man, iii. 172-6. 



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DISTRIBUTION OF WEAPONS. 7 

weapon which shortens action. We may hold, without undue credulity, that the 
throwing-arm is common to beasts, after a fashion, and to man. Among the so- 
called * missile fishes ' * the Toxotes,' or Archer, unerringly brings down insects 
with a drop of water when three or four feet high in the air. The Chaetodon, or 
archer fish of Japan, is kept in a glass vase, and fed by holding flies at the end of 
rod a few inches above the surface : it strikes them with an infallible aim. This 
process is repeated, among the mammalia, by the Llama, the Guanaco and their 
congeners, who propel their acrid and fetid saliva for some distance and with ex- 
cellent aim.* And stone-throwing held its own for many an age, as we read in the 
fifteenth century : — 

Use eke the cast of stone with slynge or honde ; 
It falleth ofte, yf other shot there none is. 
Men harneys^d in steel may not withstonde 
The multitude and mighty cast of stonys.* 

II. The stroke or blow which led to the cut would be seen exemplified in the 
felidae, by the terrible buffet of the lion, by the clawing of the tiger and the bear, 
and by the swing of the trunk of the * half-reasoner with the hand.* Man also would 
observe that the zebra and the quagga (so called from its cry, wag-gay wag-ga *), the 
horse and the ass, the camel, the giraffe, and even the cow, defend themselves with 
the kick or hoof-blow ; while the ostrich, the swan, and the larger birds of prey 
assault with a flirt or stroke of the wing. The aries or sea-ram {Delphinus orca) 
charges with a butt. The common whale raises the head with such force that it has 
been held capable of sinking a whaler : moreover, this mammal uses the huge 
caudal fin or tail in battle with man and beast ; for instance, when engaged with 
the fox-shark or thresher {Carcharias vulpes)^ These, combined with the force of 
man's doubled fist, would suggest the * noble art ' of boxing : it dates from remote 
antiquity ; witness the cestus or knuckle-duster of the classics, Greeks, Romans, 
and Lusitanians. So far from being confined to Great or Greater Britain, as some 
suppose, it is still a favourite not only with the Russian peasants, but also with the 

» The sepia (squid, cuttle-fish, Loligo vulgaris) Guanaco at Cordova, in the Argentine Republic ; it 

defends itself by discharging its * ink-bag * embedded straightway spat in my face with unpleasanUy good 

in the liver, and escapes in the blackened water. aim. 
This is as true a defence as a shield. * Strutt, Sports and Pastimes, ii. chap. 2. 

* From the Greek rh rS^ovy the bow (and arrow, * Not unlike the name of a certain Australian 

//iadf viii. 296), which seems to be a congener of the Wagga-Wagga which has been heard in the English 

Latin taxusy the yew-tree, a favourite material for law-courts. 

the weapon. Hence taxus, like the Scandinavian • In Land and Water doubts have been thrown 

(r or/r, the Keltic /r/^r, and the Slavonian tisu, all upon these single combats of the whale and thresher, 

meaning the yew-tree, denote the bow as well. The See the late Mr. Buckland*s papers (October 2, 

Skalds called the bow also almr (elm-tree), and 1880) ; Lord Archibald Campbell's sketch ; and the 

askr, or mountain-ash, the ii%\ia, which the Greeks same paper, February 26, 1881. Those on board 

applied to the spear. From r6^ov came ro^iKhv, the wrecked cruiser H.M.S. Griffon, myself in- 

* arrow-poison, the Latin toxicum, whose use sur- eluded, witnessed a fight between whale and shark 

vives in our exaggerated term * intoxicating li- in the Bay of Biafra (1862 ?). The Carcharias family 

quors. takes its name from the sharp and jagged teeth, ax^ 

■ This I know to my cost, having ofiended a t^v Kopx"^^^ oZ6vrwv, 



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8 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



Hausas, Moslem negroids who did such good service in the Ashanti war. A 
curious survival of the feline armature is the Hindu's Wigh-nakh. Following 
Demmin, Colonel A. Lane Fox * was in error when he described this * tiger*s-claw * 
as * an Indian weapon of treachery belonging to a secret society, and invented about 
A.D. 1659/ Demmin ^ as erroneously attributes the Wdgh-nakh to Sivaj/, the Prince 
of Mardthi-land in Western India, who traitorously used it upon Afzal Khan, the 
Moslem General of Aurangzeb, sent (A.D. 1659) to put down his rebellion.' A meet- 
ing of the chiefs was agreed upon, and the Moslem, quitting his army, advanced 
with a single servant ; he wore a thin robe, and carried only a straight sword. 
Sivajf, descending from the fort, assumed a timid and hesitating air, and to all 
appearance was unarmed. But he wore mail under his flimsy white cotton coat, and 
besides a concealed dagger, he carried his * tiger*s-claw.' The Khan looked with 
contempt at the crouching and diminutive * mountain rat,' whom the Moslems 
threatened to bring back in cages ; but, at the moment of embracing, the Mardthd 





Fig. I.— Indian WXgh-nakh. 



Fig. 2.— WXgh-nakh, used by MarXthXs (India Museum.) 



struck his Wdgh-nakh into his adversary's bowels and despatched him with his 
dagger. The Wagh-nakh in question is still kept as a relic, I am told, by the 
Bhonsld family.* Outside the hand you see nothing but two solid gold rings 
encircling the index and the minimus ; these two are joined inside by a steel bar, 
which serves as a connecting base to three or four sharp claws, thin enough to fit 
between and to be hidden by the fingers of a half-closed hand. The attack is by 



> Anthrop. Collection^ p. 180. Demmin, how- 
ever, is additionally incorrect by making the article 
* two and a half feet in length ' {Arms and Arnumr^ 
p. 413, Bell's edition, London, 1877). In Catalogue 
of Indian Art in the South Kensington Museum ^ 
by Lieut. H. H. Cole, R.E. (p. 313), Sivajf is 
made to murder the Moslem with the * bichwa,' or 
scorpion, a 'curved double blade.' This probably 
refers to the dagger which made * sicker.' 

* P. 402, where he calls * Sivaji ' Sevaja, 
« Elphinstone's History^ ii. 468. 

* It is, they say, adored at the old fortress and 
Maratha capital, SattAra ( = Sat-istara, the seven stars 
or Pleiades). Here, too, is Sivajf's Sword * Bhawdni,' 
a Genoa blade of great length and fine temper. Mrs. 
Guthrie, who saw the latter, describes it (vol. i. p. 
426) as a * fine Ferrara (?) blade, four feet in length, 
with a spike upon the hilt to thrust with.* She also 
notices the smallness of the grip. The Indian 



Museum of South Kensington contains a bracelet of 
seven tiger's-claws mounted in gold, with a claw 
clasp (No. 593, 1868). M. Roussclet, who visited 
Baroda in 1864, describes in his splendid volume one 
of the Gaekhwar or Baroda Rajah's favourite specta- 
culay the * naki-ka-kausti ' (kushti). The nude com- 
batants were armed with * tiger's-claws ' of horn ; 
formerly, when these were of steel, the death of one 
of the athletes was unavoidable. The weapons, fitted 
into a kind of handle, were fastened by thongs 
to the closed right hand. The men, drunk with 
Bhang or Indian hemp, rushed upon each other and 
tore like tigers at face and body ; forehead -skins 
would hang in shreds ; necks and ribs would be laid 
open, and not unfrequently one or both would bleed 
to death. The ruler's excitement on these occasions 
often grew to such a pitch that he could scarcely 
restrain himself from imitating the movements of 
the duellists. 



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THE ARMS OF ANIMALS, g 

ripping open the belly : and I have heard of a poisoned Wdgh-nakh which may 
have been suggested by certain poison rings in ancient and mediaeval Europe.* 
The date of invention is absolutely unknown, and a curious and instructive modi- 
fication of it was made by those Indians-in-Europe, the Gypsies. 

III. The thrust would be suggested by the combats of the goat, the stag, and 
black cattle, including the buffalo and the wild bull, all of which charge at speed 
with the head downwards, and drive the horns into the enemy's body. The gnu 
{Catoblepas G,) and other African antelopes, when pressed by the hunter, keep him at 
bay with the point. In Europe * hurt of hart,' a ripping and tearing thrust, has 
brought many a man to the grave. The hippopotamus, a dangerous animal unduly 
despised, dives under the canoe, like the walrus, rises suddenly, and with its lower 
tusks, of the hardest ivory, drills two holes in the offending bottom. The black 
rhinoceros, fiercest and most irritable of African fauna, though graminivorous, 
has one or two horns of wood-like fibre-bundles resting upon the strongly-arched 
nasal bones, and attached by an extensive apparatus of muscles and tendons. 
This armature, loose when the beast is at peace, becomes erect and immovable in 
rage, thus proving in a special manner its only use — that of war. It is a formidable 
dagger that tears open the elephant and passes through the saddle and its padding 
into the ribs of a horse. The extinct sabre-toothed tiger {Machairodus latidens\ 
with one incisor and five canines, also killed with a thrust. So, amongst birds, the 
bittern, the peacock, and the American white crane peck or stab at the eye ; the 
last-named has been known to drive its long sharp mandibles deep into the pursuer's 
bowels, and has been caught by presenting to it a gun-muzzle : the bird, mistaking 
the hole, strikes at it and is caught by the beak.* The hern defends herself 
during flight by presenting the sharp long beak to the falcon. The pheasant and 
partridge, the domestic cock and quail, to mention no others, use their spurs with a 
poniard's thrust ; the Argus-pheasant of India, the American Jacand (^Parra), the 
horned screamer {Palamedea\ the wing-wader of Australia 
(Gregory), and the plover of Central Africa (Denham and 
Claperton), carry weapons upon their wings. 

According to Pliny (viii. 38) the dolphins which enter 
the Nile are armed with a knife-edged spur on the back to 
protect themselves from the crocodiles. Cuvier refers this 
allusion to the Squalus centrina or Spinax of Linnaeus. The 
European * file-fish * {Balistes capriscus)^ found in a fossil state, 
and still existing, though rare in British waters, remarkably ^ balistes capriscus 
shows the efficiency, beauty, and variety of that order's arma- ^; ^^i^^^^ Fk^o^NTicoiNis. 
ture. It pierces its enemy from beneath by a strong erectile 
and cirrated spine on the first anterior dorsal ; the base of the spear is expanded 
and perforated, and a bolt from the supporting plate passes freely through it. 

* Pliny, xxxii. 6. * T\sQXXi\i%oii% Passions of Animals^ p. 225. 




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10 



THE BOOK OF TEE SWORD. 



When the spine is raised, a hollow at the back receives a prominence from the 
next bony ray, which fixes the point in an erect position. Like the hammer of a 
fire-piece at full cock, the spear cannot be forced down till the prominence is with- 
drawn, as by pulling the trigger. This mechanism, says the learned and ex- 
perienced Professor Owen,' may be compared with the fixing and unfixing of a 
bayonet : when the spine is bent down it is received into a groove in the supporting 
plate, and thus it offers no impediment to swimming. 





«^« 



Fig. 5. —Narwhal's Sword 
PiEKciNG Plank. 




Fig. 6.— Mktal Daggers with Horn Cvrvb. 

Fig. 4.— I. Spkar or Narwhal ; 2. Sword of 
XiPHiAs ; 3. Rhinoceros-Horn ; 4. Walrus 
Tusks. 

The pugnacious and voracious little * stickleback * {Gasterosteus) is similarly 
provided. The * bull-head * {Coitus diceraus^ Pallas^) bears a multibarbed horn on 
its dorsum, exactly resembling the spears of the Eskimos and the savages of South 
America and Australia. The yellow-bellied * surgeon ' or lancet-fish (Acanthurus) is 
armed, in either ocean, with a long spine on each side of the tail ; with this lance 
it defends itself dexterously against its many enemies. The Naseus fronticomis 
(Lac^pede) bears, besides the horn-muzzle, trenchant spear-formed blades in the 



Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of Vertebrates ^ i. 193. 



' Prim. Warfare^ i. p. 22. 



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THE ARMS OF ANIMALS, 



II 



pointed and serrated tail. The sting-fish or adder-pike {Trachinus viperd) has 
necessitated amputation of the wounded limb: the dorsals, as well as the 
opercular spines, have deep double grooves in which the venomous mucous 
secretion is lodged — a hint to dagger-makers. The sting-rays {Raia trygon and 
R. histrix *) twist the long slender tail round the object of attack and cut the 
surface with the strong notched and spiny edge, inflicting a wound not easily 
healed. The sting, besides being poisonous, has the especial merit of breaking off* 
in the wound : it is extensively used by the savages of the Fiji, the Gambier, and 
the Pellew Islands, of Tahiti, Samoa, and many of the Low Islands.^ These 
properties would suggest poisoned weapons which cannot be extracted. Such are 
the arrows of the Bushman, the Shoshoni, and the Macoinchi of 
Guiana, culminating in the highly-civilised stiletto of hollow 
glass. 

The sword-fish {Xiphias\ although a vegetable feeder, is men- 
tioned by Pliny (xxxii. 6) as able to sink a ship. It is recorded 
to have killed a man when bathing in the Severn near Worcester. 
It attacks the whale, 
and it has been 
known to transfix a 
vessel's side with its 
terrible weapon. The 
narwhal or sea-uni- 
corn {Monodon mo- 
noceros) carries a 
formidable tusk, a 
Sword-blade of the 
same kind similarly 
used.^ 

Here may be 
offered a single proof 

how Man, living among, and dependent for food upon, the lower animals, borrowed 
from their habits and experience his earliest practice of offence and defence. 
The illustration represents a * Singhauta,' * *Mddu' or *Miru' (double dagger), 
made from the horns of the common Indian antelope, connected by crossbars. 
In its rude state, and also tipped with metal, it is still used as a weapon by 





Fig. 7.— MXdu or MXsu. 



' Prim. Warfare^ i. p. 21. 

* Ibid, il p. 22. 

• The spiral horn is shovm by Colonel Yule 
{Marco Polo, ii. 273, second edition) in an illustra- 
tion as *Monoceros and the Maiden.* The animal, 
however, appears from the short tail to be a tapir, 
not a rhinoceros. That learned and exact writer 
remarks that the unicorn supporter of the Royal 



Arms retains the narwhal horn. The main use of 
the latter in commerce is to serve as a core for the 
huge wax-candles lighted during the ceremonies of 
the Roman Catholic Church. 

* So it is called in the Catalogue of the India 
Museum at South Kensington ; the derivation is 
evidently from the Hindostani singh^ a horn. 



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12 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



y 



the wild Bhfls, and as a crutch and dagger by the Jogis (Hind lis) and Fakirs 
(Hindis or Moslems), both orders of religious mendicants who are professionally 
forbidden to carry secular arms. It also served for defence, 
like the parrying-stick of Africa and Australia, till it was 
fitted with a hand-guard, and the latter presently expanded 
into a circular targe of metal. This ancient instrument, with 
its graceful curves, shows four distinct stages of develop- 
ment : first, the natural, and, secondly, the early artificial, 
with metal caps to make it a better thrusting weapon. The 
third process was to forge the whole of metal ; and the 
fourth and final provided it with a straight, broad blade, 
springing at right angles from the central grip. This. was 
the * Adaga * ^ of mediaeval writers. 

IV. The first idea of a trenchant or cutting instrument 
would be suggested by various reeds and grasses ; their 
silicious leaves at certain angles cleave to the bone, as 
experience has taught most men who have passed through 
a jungle of wild sugar-cane. When full-grown the plants 
stand higher than a man's head, and the flint-edged leaves 
disposed in all directions suggest a labyrinth of sword- 
blades. Thus the Mawingo-wingo {Pennisetum Benthami), like the horse-tail or 
* shave-grass ' of Spain, was used as knives by the executioners of Kings Sunna 
and Mtesa of Uganda, when cutting the human victims to pieces.* Of the same 
kind are the * sword-grass * and the * bamboo-grass.' Many races, especially the 
Andamanese and the Polynesian Islanders, make useful blades of the split and 
sharpened bamboo: they are fashioned from the green plant, and are dried 
and charred to sharpen the edge. Turning to the animal world, the cassowary 
tears with a forward cut, and the wounded coot scratches like a cat. The * old 
man kangaroo,' with the long nail of the powerful hind leg, has opened the 
stomach of many a staunch hound. The wild boar attacks with a thrust, followed 
by a rip, cutting scientifically from below upwards. This, as will appear, is pre- 
cisely the plan adopted by certain ancient forms of sabre, Greek and barbarian, 
the cutting edges being inside, not outside, the curve. I may add that the old 
attack is one of our latest improvements in broadsword exercise.' 




Fic. 8.— Thb Adaga. 



* Boutell {Arms and Armour ^ fig. 6i, p. 269) 
engraves a parrying weapon with a blade at right 
angles to the handle.' He calls it a * Moorish Adar- 
gue * (fifteenth century). The latter word (with the 
r) is simply the Arabic word el-darakah^ a shield, the 
origin of our * targe* and 'target.' The adaga (not 
adarga, cantos i. 87, viii. 29) with which Camoens in 
The Lusiads (ii. 95, &c.) arms the East Africans is a 
weapon of the Mddu kind. I have translated it * dag- 
targe,* because in that part of the world it combines 



poniard and buckler. The savage and treacherous 
natives of the Solomon Islands (San Christoval, &c.) 
still use a nondescript weapon, half Sword and half 
shield, some six feet long. 

* Captain Speke's Discovery of the Source of the 
Nile, p. 652 (Edinburgh : Black woods, 1863). 

■ In the form called Manchette, or cutting at hand, 
wrist, and forearm with the inner edge. It is co- 
piously described in iv. 45-54 of my New System 
of Sword Exercise, &c (London : Clowes, 1876). 



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THE ARMS OF ANIMALS, 



13 



The offensive weapon of the sting-ray, and of various insects, as well as the 
teeth of all animals, man included, furnish models for serrated or saw-edged instru- 
ments. Hence Colonel A. Lane Fox observes : * * It is not surprising that the first 
efforts of mankind in the construction of trenchant instruments should so univers- 
ally consist of teeth, or flint-flakes, arranged along the edge of staves.' But 
evidently the knife preceded the saw, which is nothing but a knife-blade jagged. 





Fig. II.— Italian Daggsr, with Grooves 
AND Holes for Poison. 



Fig. 9.— Serrated or Multidarbbo 
Weapons. 

z. Sting of the common Bee ; a. Sting of Ray. 





B 




Fig. 



la.— Sword with Serrated Blade 
or Saw-fish. 



Fig. xa— Weafons made of Sharks' Teeth. 



Other familiar instances would be the multibarb stings of insects, especially that 
of the common bee. Again, we have the mantis, an orthopter of the Temperates 
and the Tropics, whose fights, enjoyed by the Chinese, are compared with the duels 
of sabrers. For the rasping blow and parry they use the forearm, which carries 
rows of strong sharp spines ; and a happy stroke beheads or bisects the antagonist. 
To this category belongs the armature of the saw-fish {Pristis)^ a shark widely 

* Primitive Warfare^ p. 24. 



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14 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

distributed and haunting the arctic, temperate, and tropical seas. Its mode of 
offence is to spring high from the water and to fall upon the foe, not with the point, 
but with either edge of its formidable arm : the row of strong and trenchant 
barbs, set like teeth, cuts deeply into the whale's flesh. Hence, in New Guinea, 
the serrated blade becomes a favourite Sword, the base of the snout being cut and 
rounded so as to form a handle. 

Thus man, essentially a tool-making animal, and compelled by the conditions 
of his being to one long battle with the brute creation, was furnished by his 
enemies, not only with models of implements and instruments, and with instructions 
to use them, from witnessing the combats of brutes, but actually with their arms, 
which he converted to his own purposes. Hence the weapon and the tool were, as 
a rule, identical in the hands of primeval man ; and this forms, perhaps, the chief 
test of a primitive invention. The earliest drift-flints * were probably used as 
weapons both of war and the chase, to grub roots, to cut down trees, and to scoop 
out canoes.'* The Watiisi of Eastern Africa make their baskets with their 
sharpened spear-heads ; and the so-called Kifirs (Amazulu, &c.) still shave them- 
selves with the assegai. Hence, too, as like conditions engender like results, the 
arms and implements of different races resemble one another so closely as to 
suggest a common origin and actual imitation, even where copying was, so to 
speak, impossible. 

Let us take as an instance two of the most widespread of weapons. The 
blow-pipe's progressive form has been independently developed upon a similar 
plan, with distinctly marked steps, in places the most remote.^ Another instance 
is the chevaux-de-frise, the spikes of metal familiar to the classics.' They survive 
in the caltrops or bamboo splints planted in the ground by the barefooted 
Mpangwe (Fans) of Gaboon-land and by the Rangos of Malacca. 

> Sir Charles Lyell, Geological Evidences of An- and unpoisoned. It is the sumpitan of Borneo, where 

tiquity of Marty '^. 13 (London : Murray, 1863). Dr. Pigafetta (1520) mentions reeds of this kind in 

W. Lauder Lindsay {Proc, Soc, Ant, Scot, vol. v. Caya)ran and Palavan Islands. The hollow bamboo 

p. 327) says of the Maori tokis or stone-hatchets, is still used by the Laos of Siam, and is preserved 

they were used chiefly for cutting down timber and among the Malagasy as a boyish way of killing birds, 

for scooping canoes out of the trunks of forest trees ; P^re Bourieu notes it among the Malaccan negrito 

for driving posts for huts ; for grubbing up roots, aborigines, whom the Moslem Malays call * Oran- 

and killing animals for food ; for preparing firewood ; Banua ' (men of the woods) ; the weapon they term 

for scraping the flesh from the bones when eating, tomeang. It is known in Ceylon, in Silhet, and on 

and for various other purposes in the domestic arts. both sides of the Bay of Bengal. Condamine de- 

But they were also employed in times of war as scribes it among the Yameos (South American In> 

weapons of offence and defence, as a supplementary dians) ; Waterlow and Klemm, in New Guinea, 

kind of tomahawk. and Markham among the Uapes and other tribes 

* The French sarbacane^ the Italian and Spanish on the Amazonas head-waters. In the New World 

ccrbotafuty the Portuguese gravatana^ and the Ger- it is of two varieties : the long heavy zarabatana, and 

man ^/orr^Ar (blow-tube) is, according to Demmin the thinner, slighter pucuna. Finally, it has degraded 

(p. 468), arbotanay or rather carpicanna^ derived from to the * pea-shooter ' of modem Europe. The prin- 

' Carpi,* the place of manufacture, and the Assy- cipal feature of the weapon is the poisoned dart; 

nan {Kane)^ Greek and Latin Kivva, {canna), whence it is therefore unknown amongst tribes who, like the 

* cannon.* This tul>e, spread over three distinct racial Andamanese, have not studied toxics {ybum, Anthrop, 

areas in Southern Asia, Africa, and America, is used Inst. p. 270, February 1882). 

either for propelling clay balls or arrowlets, poisoned * See the kamus ferreus pointed at both ends in 



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ARMS AND ARTS, 15 

In the early days of anthropological study we read complaints that * it is im- 
possible to establish, amongst the implements of modem savages, a perfectly true 
sequence,' although truth may be arrived at in points of detail ; and that * in 
regard to the primary order of development, much must still be left open to con- 
jecture.* But longer labour and larger collections have lately added many a link to 
the broken chain of continuity. We can now trace with reasonable certainty the 
tardy progress of evolution which, during a long succession of ages, led to the 
systematised art of war. The conditions of the latter presently allowed society 
periods of rest, or rather of recovery ; and more leisure for the practice which, in 
weapons as in other things, * maketh perfect' * And man has no idea of finality : 
he will stop short of nothing less than the absolutely perfect. He will labour at 
the ironclad as he did the canoe ; at the fish-torpedo as he did the petard.^ 

From the use of arms, also, arose the rudimentary arts of savage man. Music 
began when he expressed his joy and his sorrow by cries of emotion — the voice 
being the earliest, as it is still the best, of music-makers. It was followed by its 
imitations, which pass through three several stages, and even now we know 
nothing more in the way of development' When the savage clapped together 
two clubs he produced the first or drum-type ; when he hissed or whistled he 
originated the pipe-type (syrinx, organ, bagpipe, &c.) ; and the twanging of his 
bow suggested the lyre-type, which we still find — * tickling the dried guts of a 
mewing cat.' * Painting and sculpture were the few simple lines drawn and cut 
upon the tomahawk or other rude weapon-tool. * As men think and live so they 
build,' said Herder ; and architecture, which presently came to embrace all the 
other arts, dawned when the Savage attempted to defend and to adorn his roost 
among the tree branches or the entrance to his cave-den.* 

After this preamble, which has been longer than I expected, we pass to the 
first or rudest forms of the Weapons Proper used by Savage Man. 

Demmin(p. 124); and the German /^»jja;f^/ (p. 465). another in the same order in various parts of the 

The larger caltrop was called /r»^tt/«j, jO'/kj or j/i7«/ world* {youm, ArUhrop, Inst, May 188 1 ). The 

( Veget. De Re MIL iii. 24). The knights of medi- author states that the Veddahs (properly Vsediminissu, 

seval Europe planted their spurs roweb upwards to or 'sportsmen') of Ceylon, the Mincopis(Andamans), 

serve the same purpose. and the people of Tierra del Fuego * have no musical 

' * Make your hand perfect by a third attempt,' instruments at all.' 

said Timocrates in Athenaeus, i. cap. 4. a r\^ 1 ^j- » o /t j »#•. l h 

• .«•.!-_.> li^iTTr T? Opuscula fidtcularum, &c. (London : Mitchell 

• * Hitherto,' remarks Colonel A. Lane Fox, dH h ^ 
* Providence operates directly on the work to be "6 /• 

performed by means of the living animated tool ; • Specus erant pro domibus. Caverns appear to 

henceforth it operates indirectly on the progress and be divisible into three classes : dwelling-places— in- 

development of creation, first through the agency of eluding refuges, where, as Prometheus says (i, 452), 

the instinctively tool-using savage, and, by degrees, ' Men lived like little ants beneath the ground in the 

of the intelligent and reasoning man.' gloomy recesses of grots '—storehouses, and sepul- 

• J. F. Rowbotham : * Certain reasons for be- chres. All were in Lyell's third phase. The first 
lieving that the Art of Music, in prehistoric times, was when the rock began to form the channel by 
passed through three distinct stages of development, dissolution ; the second, when a regular river flowed ; 
each characterised by the invention of a new form of and the third, when earth and air, instead of water, 
instrument ; and that these stages succeeded one filled the bed. 



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i6 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



CHAPTER II. 

man's first weapons— the stone and the stick, the earliest ages 
OF weapons, the ages of wood, of bone, and of horn. 

What, then, was Man's first weapon? He was bom speechless and helpless, 
inferior to the beasts of the field. He grew up armed, but badly armed. His 
muscles may have been stronger than they are now ; his poor uneducated fisti 
cuff, however, could not have compared with the kick of an ass. As we see from 
the prognathous jaw, he could bite, and his teeth were doubtless excellent * ; still, 
the size and shape of the maxilla rendered it an arm inferior to the hyaena's and 
even to the dog's. He scratched and tore, as women still do ; but his nails could 
hardly have been more dangerous than the claws of the minor felines. 

He had, however, the hand, the most perfect of all prehensile contrivances, and 
Necessity compelled him to use it The stone, his first * weapon,* properly so 
called, would serve him in two ways — as a missile, and as a percussive instrument. 
Our savage progenitor, who in days long before the dawn of history, contracted 
the extensor and relaxed the flexor muscles of his arm when flinging into air what 
he picked up from the ground, was unconsciously lengthening his reach and 
taking the first step in the art and science of ballistics. His descendants would 
acquire extraordinary skill in stone-throwing, and universal practice would again 
make perfect Diodorus of Sicily (b.C. 44),* who so admirably copied Herodotus, 
says that the Libyans * use neither Swords, spears, nor other weapons ; but only 
three darts and stones in certain leather budgets, wherewith they fight in pursuing 
and retreating.* The Wdnshi (Guanches) Libyan or Berber peoples of the Canarian 
Archipelago, according to Cd da Mosto (A.D. 1505), confirmed by many, including 
George Glas,^ were expert stone-throwers. They fought their duels * in the public 

* Aristotle Darwin holds (sorrow ! that we should West Africa^ i. 1 1 6) borrows from the Spanish of 
say * held *) : * Our male semi-human progenitors Abreu-Galindo. Mr. F. W, Newman {^Libyan Vo' 
possessed great canine teeth,* as is still shown by a cabulary : Triibner, 1882) has illustrated the four 
few exceptional individuals. Hence we derived the Libyan languages — the Algerian Kabail (ancient 
trick of uncovering the eye-tooth when sneering or Numidian), the Moroccan Shilhi (Mauritanian), the 
snarling at * Brother Man.* Ghadamsi (of which we know Ultle), and the Tu4rik 

' Quoted from Mr. Edward T. Stevens in Flint (guides), or Tarkiya (Gaetulian). * Guanche * is a 

Chips \ Col. A. Lane Fox (Caial, p. 158). corruption oi guan (Berber wan\ 'one person,* and 

• History of the Discovery and Conquest of the Chinet, or Tenerife Island ; guan-chinety meaning 
Canary Islands^ which dates from 1792. The un- * a man of Tenerife.* I have returned to this subject 

fortunate • master-mariner * (see my Wanderings in in my last book on the Gold Coast (i. chap. 5). 



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STONE-THROWERS, ij 

place, where the combatants mounted upon two stones placed at the opposite 
sides of it, each stone being flat at top and about half a yard in diameter. On 
these they stood fast without moving their feet, till each had thrown three round 
stones at his antagonist. Though they were good marksmen, yet they generally 
avoided those missive weapons by the agile writhing of their bodies. Then 
arming themselves with sharp flints (obsidian ?) in their left hands, and cudgels 
or clubs in their right, they fell on, beating and cutting each other till they were 
tired.* An instance is mentioned in which a Guanche brought down with a 
single throw a large palm-frond, whose mid-rib was capable of resisting the stroke 
of an axe. Kolben, who wrote about a century and a half ago, gives the following 
account of the ape-like gestures of the Khoi-Khoi or Hottentots ^ :— * The most 
surprising strokes of their dexterity are seen in their throwing of a stone. They 
hit a mark to a miracle of exactness, though it be a hundred paces distant and no 
bigger than a halfpenny. I have beheld them at this exercise with the highest 
pleasure and astonishment, and was never weary of the spectacle. I still expected 
after repeated successes, that the stone would err ; but I expected in vain. Still 
went the stone right to the mark, and my pleasure and astonishment were 
redoubled. You could imagine that the stone was not destined to err, or that 
you were not destined to see it. But a Hottentot's unerring hand in this exercise 
is not the only wonder of the scene ; you would be equally struck perhaps with 
the manner in which he takes his aim. He stands, not still with a lift-up arm and 
a steady staring eye upon the mark, as we do ; but is in constant motion, skipping 
from one side to another, suddenly stooping, suddenly rising ; now bending on 
this side, now on that ; his eyes, hands, and feet are in constant action, and you 
would think that he was playing the fool, and minding anything else than his aim ; 
when on a sudden, away goes the stone with a fury, right to the heart of the mark, 
as if some invisible power had directed it.' 

Nearer home the modem Syrians still preserve their old dexterity : I have 
often heard the tale, and have no reason to doubt its truth, of a brown bear {Ursus 
syriacus) being killed in the Libanus by a blow between the eyes.^ When the 
Arab Bedawin are on the raid and do not wish to use their matchlocks, they 
attack at night, and * rain stones * upon the victim. The latter vainly discharges 

* The word, also written * Hiittentut, ' and on- American tribes. Professor Mahaffy notices that 

ginally Dutch, is supposed to be an uncomplimentaiy * old women among us express pity by a r^ular 

imitation of the cluck-like or smack-like 'sonant,' palatal click.* On the continent of Europe it ex- 

which characterises their complicated and difficult presses a kind of *Don't-you-wbh-you-may-get-it ?' 

language, and which has infected the neighbouring Dr. Hahn, who has lately published a scientific work 

sections of the great South African family of speech. upon the Khoi-Khoi, favourably reviewed by Pro- 

The Hottentots had already reached the pastoral fessor Max Miiller in the Nineteenth Century^ has 

stage when first visited by Europeans ; whereas the treated the subject exhaustively. 

Bushmans then, as now, were huntsmen. Some ' I can bear personal witness to the prowess of 

derive the Hottentot-Bushman * click ' firom the the ruffians of Nazareth, who call themselves, most 

Egyptian article T (d). But Klaproth found it in falsely, Greeks. In 1871, when encamped near the 

Circassia, Whitmee amongst the Melanesian Ne- village, three of my servants were so severely wounded 

gritos, and Haldeman amongst certain North with hand-stones that one was nearly killed. 



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i8 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



his ammunition against the shadows flitting ghost-like among the rocks ; and, 
when his fire is drawn, the murderers rush in and finish their work. The use of 
the stone amongst the wild tribes of Asia, Africa, and America is almost uni- 
versal. In Europe, the practice is confined to schoolboys ; but the wild Irish, by 
beginning early, become adepts in it when adults. As a rule, the shepherd is 
everywhere a skilful stone-thrower. 

Turner makes the * Kawas ' of Tanna, New Hebrides, a stone as long as, and 
twice as thick as, an ordinary counting-house ruler : it is thrown with great pre- 
cision for a distance of twenty yards. The same author mentions stones rounded 
like a cannon-ball, among the people of Savage Island and Eromanga. Com- 
mander Byron notices the stones made into missiles by the Disappointment 
Islanders. Beechey, whose party was attacked by the Easter Islanders, says that 
the weapons, cast with force and accuracy, knocked several of the seamen under 
the boat-thwarts. Crantz tells us that Eskimo children are taught stone-throwing 




Fig. 13.— Ancient Egyptians Throwing Knives. 

at a mark as soon as they can use their hands. The late Sir R. Schomburg de- 
scribes a singular custom amongst the Demarara Indians. When a child enters 
boyhood he is given a hard round stone which he is to hand-rub till it becomes 
smooth, and he often reaches manhood before the task is done. Observers 
have suggested that the only use of the practice is a * lesson in perseverance, 
which quality, in the opinion of many people, is best inculcated by engaging the 
minds of youths in matters that are devoid of any other incentive in the way of 
practical utility or interest* 

In more civilised times the knife, as a missile, would take the place of the 
stone. We find that the ancient Egyptians * practised at a wooden block, and 
the German Helden (champions), seated on settles, duelled by casting three 
knives each, to be parried with the shield. The modern Spaniards begin to learn 
when children the art of throwing \!ci^facon? cuchillo or clasp-knife. The reapers 

* Prof. Maspero, of Bulak, told me that he had Both weapons are thrown in two ways. The more 
some doubts about the correctness of Wilkinson's illus- common is to lay the blade flat on the palm, which 
tration showing 'ancient Eg}ptians throwing knives.* is narrowed by contracting the thumb and the w«j- 

* The facon (faulchion) is about two feet long cuius guimarum at the root of Uic little finger. The 



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THE BOW, 19 

of the Roman Campagna, mere barbarians once civilised, also * chuck ' the sickle 
with a surprising precision. 

The habit of stone-throwing would presently lead to the invention of the sling, 
which Mey rick, considers,* strange to say, the 'earliest and simplest weapon of 
antiquity.* The rudest form of this pastoral weapon used only on open plains, a 
ball and cord, was followed by the various complications of string- or thong-sling, 
cup-sling, and stick-sling. The latter, a split stick which held the stone till the 
moment of discharge, may have been the primitive arm : Lepsius shows an 
Egyptian using such a sling and provided with a reserve heap of pebbles. Nilsson 
suggests that David was thus weaponed when Goliath addressed him, * Am I a dog 
that thou comest to me with staves } * — that is, with the shepherd's staff turned 
into a sling. And this form survived longest in the Roman * fustibulus,' which 
the modems corrupted to * fustibale ' * : the latter, with its wooden handle, was 
used in Europe during the twelfth century, and was employed in delivering hand- 
grenades till the sixteenth. The primitive ball-and-cord, known to the ancient 
Egyptians, is still preserved in the Bolas of the South American Gaucho. A 
simultaneously invented missile would be the hurling or throwing-stick and its 
modification, the Boomerang, of which I have still to speak. The application of 
elasticity and resilience being now well known, would suggest the rudest form of 
the bow ' and arrow. This invention, next in importance (though lon^o intervallo) 
to fire-making and fire-feeding, is the first crucial evidence of the distinction 
between the human weapon and the bestial arm. Nilsson and many others hold 
the invention to have been instinctive and common to all peoples ; and we cannot 
wonder that it was made the invention of demi-gods — Nimrod, Scythes * the son of 
Jupiter, or Perses son of Perseus.* The missile arm at once showed man and 
beast separated by an extensive difference of degree, if not of kind, and it has 
played the most notable part, perhaps, of all weapons in the annals of humanity 
or inhumanity. It led to the Greek gastrapheta, the Roman arcubalista 
(crossbow ®) ; to the palintonan or balista^ and the arblast (an enlarged 
species of the arcus^ intended for throwing darts of giant size) ; to the Belagerungs- 
balister^ a fixed form ; to the catapult, enthytonon^ tormentum^ scorpion or onager^ 

other is by holding the handle and causing the dart ares (< Slinging-Isles '), which had only one strap 

to reverse, so as to strike point foremost. The best (Livy, xxxviii. 30). 

guard is a revolver. * Pliny, vii. 57. The legend points to the excel- 

» Crttkal Enquiry into Antieni Armour, &c., by ^^^^ ."«*«nr ^^ ^« Scythians (Turanians) and the 

Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick, Kt, preface, p. viu. Persians. 

(4to 1S42). * ^ytn in modem days Dr. Woodward suggests 

, . that the first model of flint arrowheads was brought 

It IS not, as usuaUy supposed, a« bastard French ^^ gabel, and was preserved after the dispersion of 

word,' from >j/w, a staff; and ^aXAcir, to throw. mankind. This is admirably archaic. 

' Our * bow ' is the Gothic bogo (a bender ?), Scand. * The crossbow is apparently indigenous amongst 

bogi^ Dan. btu, and Old Germ, poko, (Jahns, p. various tribes of Indo-China, but reintroduced into 

18.) The ancients made fine distinctions in slings : European warfare during the twelfth century (Yule*s 

thus the three-thonged weapon of iEgeum, Patrae, Marco Polo, il 143). 
and Dymae was held far superior to that of the Bale- * The military engines of the ancients were chiefly 

C2 



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20 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



and to other formidable forms of classical artillery which preceded the * cheap and 
nasty ' invention of chemical explosives. 

So much for the Hand-stone as the forefather of missiles and of ballistic science. 
Held in the fist it would give momentum, weight and velocity, force and bruising 
power, to the blow. Thus it was the forerunner of the club, straight and curved ; 
the flail, the bdton ferr/, the ' morning star,' the * holy-water sprinkler,* and a host 
of similar weapons * that added another and a harder joint to man's arm. Clubs 
— which in practice are aimed at the head, whereas the spear is mostly directed at 
the body * — would be easily made by pulling up a straight young tree, or by tear- 
ing down a branch from the parent trunk and stripping it of twigs and leaves. The 
club of Australia, a continent to which we look for original forms, has the branch- 
ing rootlets trimmed to serve as spikes ; moreover, the terminal bulge has been 
developed in order to stop or parry the assailant's weapon. In fact the swell, ball, 
lozenge, or mushroom-head was the first germ of the Australasian shield. The 
next step would be to fashion the ragged staff with fire, with friction, and with 
flint knives, shells or other scrapers, into a cutting as well as a crushing instrument ; 
and here we have one of the many origins of the Sword and of its diminutives, the 
dagger and the knife. Pointed at the end, it would become the lance and spear, 
the spud, spade, and palstave, the pilum, the dart, the javelin, and the assagai. 

Not a few authorities contend that the earliest weapons, the most constant in 
all ages and continuous in all countries, were the spear and the axe. The first 
would be a development of the pointed hand-celt ' ; the latter of the leaf- formed 
or almond-shaped tool. But firstly, these would be mostly confined to countries 
with a well-developed Stone Age * ; and secondly, the conversion of the hand-stone 



on the torsion principle ; those of the mediaevals were 
of two tjrpes, the sling and the crossbow. The * tor- 
mentum' was so called because all its parts were 
twisted ; the ' scorpion ' (or catapult), because the 
bow was vertically placed, like the insect's raised 
tail ; and the * onager,* because the * wild asses, when 
hunted, throw the stones behind them by their kicks, 
so as to pierce the chests of those who pursue them, 
or to fracture them.* So at least says A. Mar- 
cellinus {Hist, xxiii. 4). I cannot but suspect that 
Anna Comnena's T^ir)/^ is a corruption of onager 
(Yule's Marco Poloy ii. 144). 

* The National Museum of Prague, Old Graben 
Street, now Kolowrat, contains a fine collection of 
war-flails, especially the huge * morning star* of John 
Zsizka, generally called Ziska. 

* Mostly, not always, as I learnt to my cost. 

■ In a subsequent work {Bronzes^ &c., pp. 27-30) 
Dr. Evans discusses the suggestions of Beger and of 
Mr. Knight Watson {Proc, Soc. Ant, 2nd S. vii. 396) 
that celte in Job is a misreading for certe. He justly 
reprobates the fashion of writing *Kelt,* and the 
newly-coined French plural celta. The truth is that 
not a few antiquaries have confounded the instrument 
with the Keltic or Celtic tribes. The word, meaning 



a stone axe, adze, or chisel, has been erroneously 
derived from the Celts, property Kelts, and by older 
philologists a calando, which would convert it into a 
congener of calum. It is the Latin ceitis or ceites^ a 
chisel, possibly a relative of the Welsh cellt^ a flint. 
The word is found, according to Mr. Evans, only in 
the Vulgate translation of Job, in Saint Jerome, and 
in a forged inscription. He first met with its anti- 
quarian use in Beger's Thesaurus Brandenburgicus 
(1696), where a metal securis (axe) is called ceUes. 
♦ In 1650 Sir William Dugdale {Hist, of Warwick' 
shire) spoke of stone celts as the weapons of the An- 
cient Britons, and in 1766 he was followed by Bishop 
Lyttelton. In 1797 Mr. Frere drew the attention of 
the Society of Antiquaries to the Drift (paheolithic) 
instruments occurring at Hoxne, Suffolk, together 
with remains of the elephant and other extinct ani- 
mals. He was one of several ; but, as usually hap- 
pens, the wit of one man collected and systematised 
the scattered experience of many. The man was 
M. Boucher de Perthes, whose finds in the drift- 
gravels of St. Acheul, near Amiens (1858), appeared 
in the Antiquitis Celtiques et Anti-diluviennes^ and 
made an epoch, changing the accepted chronology of 
mankind. 



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THE CLUB, 



21 



into an anne d'hast would assuredly be later than the club and the sharpened stick 
or stake. 

Herodotus, the father of ancient history in its modem form, a travelled student 
and a great genius, whose prose poem — for such it is — has proved incomparably 
more useful to us than any works of his successors, when describing a rock-sculpture 
of Sesostris-Ramses (ii. io6) makes him carry in his right hand a spear (Egyptian), 
and in his left a bow (Lybian or Ethiopian). Hence some writers on Hoplology 
have held that he considered these to be the oldest of weapons. But the ancients 
did not study prehistoric man beyond confounding human bones with those of ex- 
tinct mammals. Augustus Caesar was an early collector, according to Suetonius 





Fig. 14.— Japanese War-Flail. 



Fig. 15.— Turkish War-Flail. Fig. t6.— Morning Star. 



(in * August.' c. xxii.). * Sua vero . . . excoluit rebusque vetustate ac raritate 
notabilibus ; qualia sunt Capraeis immanum belluarum ferarumque membra pra^- 
grandia, quae dicuntur gigantum ossa et arma heroum.' * The Emperor (whom the 
late Louis Napoleon so much resembled, even in the matter of wearing hidden 
armour *) preferred these curiosities to statues and pictures. The ancients also, like 



* The stone-weapon was also called betulus, 
beUmniteSy and ceraunius (thunder-stone), ceraun- 
turn and ceraunia. So Claudian {Lous Serena, 
V. 77)— 

Pyrenaeisque sub antris 
Ignea fluminese legere ceraunia n)rmphse. 

• Fuerunt auctores * (says Aldovrandus) * qui hunc lapi- 



dem ceraunium, nempe fulminarem, indigitaverunt. ' 
According to Skulius Thorlacius,the stone-axe typified 
the splitting ; the hammer, the shattering ; and the 
arrow, the piercing, action of the bolt (Om Thor og 
bans Hammer). People carried these belemnites 
about their persons, because lightning was supposed 
never to strike twice in the same place. 

* According to Suetonius, the Roman Caesar pre- 



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22 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



Marco Polo and too many of the modems, spoke of the world generally after 
studying a very small part in particular. The Halicarnassian here evidently alludes 
to an epoch which had made notable advances upon the Quaternary Congener of 
the Simiads. We must return to a much earlier age. Lucretius, whose penetrating 
genius had a peculiar introvision, wrote like a modem scientist : — 

Arma antiqua manus, ungues dentesque fuerunt, 
Et lapides et item sylvarum fragmina rami ; 
Posterius ferri vis est, aerisque reperta, 
Sed prius serfs erat, quam ferri cognitus usus. * 

Gentleman Horace is almost equally correct : — 

Quum prorepserunt primis animalia terns, 
Mutum et turpe pecus, glandem atque cubilia propter 
Unguibus et pugnis, dein fustibus, atque ita porro 
Pugnabant armis quae post fabricaverat usus.* 

How refreshing is the excellent anthropology of these pagans after the marvel- 
myths of man's Creation propounded by the so-called * revealed * religions. 

For the better distribution of the subject I shall here retain the obsolete and 
otherwise inadmissible, because misleading, terms — Age of Stone, Age of Bronze, 
Age of Iron.' From the earliest times all the metals were employed, without 
distinction, for weapons offensive and defensive : besides which, the three epochs 
intermingle in all countries, and overlap one another ; they are, in fact, mostly 
simultaneous rather than successive. As a modem writer says, like the three 
principal colours of the rainbow, these three stages of civilisation shade off the one 



sided over the senate with a Sword by bis side and a 
mail-coat under bis tunic 

* De Rer. Nat, v. 1282. He speaks of Italy, 
where copper and bronze historically preceded 
iron. 

« Sat, i. 3. 

• Leading to the fourth, or Historic, and the 
fifth, or Gunpowder, age of weapons. In these * ages * 
we have a fine instance of hasty and indiscriminate 
generalisation. They originated in Scandinavia, 
where Stone was used almost exclusively from the 
beginning of man*s occupation till B.C. 2000-1000. 
At that time the Bronze began, and ended with the 
Iron about the Christian era. Thomsen, who clas- 
sified the Copenhagen Museum in 1836 ; Nilsson, the 
Swede, who founded comparative anthropology (1838 
-43) ; Forchhammer and Worsaaee, the Dane, who 
illustrated the Bronze Age (1845), fairly established 
the local sequence. It was accepted by F. Keller, of 
the Zurich Lake (1853), by Count Gozzadini, of Bo- 
logna (1854), by Lyell (1863), and by Professor Max 
Miiller (1863, 1868, and 1873), who seems to have 
followed the Swiss studies of M. Morlot {Bulletin cU 
la Soc. Vaudoisey tome vi. etc.) Unhappily, the 
useful order was applied to the whole world, when its 



deficiency became prominent and palpable. I note 
that Mr. Joseph Anderson {Scotland in Early Chris- 
tian Times y p. 19) retains the * three stages of pro- 
gress * — stone, bronze, and iron. Brugsch {History^ 
i. 25) petulantly rejects them, declaring that Egypt 
* throws scorn upon these assumed periods,' the re- 
verse being the case. Mr. John Evans {The Ancient 
Stone Implements y <Sr*^-., of Great Britain^ p. 2) adopts 
the succession-idea, vrarning us that the classification 
does not imply any exact chronology. He finds 
Biblical grounds * in favour of such a view of gradual 
development of material civilisation.* Adam's per- 
sonal equipment in the way of tools or weapons would 
have been but insufficient, if no artificer was instructed 
in brass and iron until the days of Tubal Cain, the 
sixth in descent when a generation covered a hundred 
years. Mr. Evans divides the Stone Age into four 
periods. First, the Palaeolithic, River-gravel, or Drift, 
when only chipping was used ; second, the Reindeer, 
or Cavern-epoch of Central France, and an interme- 
diate age, when surface-chipping is found ; third, the 
Neolithic, or surface stone-period of Western Europe, 
in which grinding was practised; and, lastly, the 
Metallo-lithic age, which attained the highest degree 
of manual skill. 



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THE 'AGES: 23 

into the other ; and yet their succession, as far as Western Europe * is concerned, 
appears to be equally well defined with that of the prismatic colours, though the 
proportion of the spectrum may vary in different countries. And, as a confusion 
of ideas would be created, especially when treating of the North European Sword, 
by neglecting this superficial method of classification, I shall retain it while pro- 
ceeding to consider the development of the White Arm under their highly conven- 
tional limits. 

I must, moreover, remark that the ternary division, besides having no absolute 
chronological signification, and refusing to furnish any but comparative dates, is 
insufficient. Concomitant with, and possibly anterior to, the so-called Stone Age, 
wood, bone, teeth, and horn were extensively used ; and the use has continued 
deep into the metal ages. Throughout the lower valley of the River of the Amazons, 
where stone is totally wanting, primitive peoples must have armed themselves with 
another material. The hard and heavy trees, both of the Temperates and the 
Tropics, supplied a valuable material which could be treated simply by the use of 
fire, and without metal or even stone. Ramusio speaks of a sago-wood {Nibong or 
Caryota urens) made into short lances by the Sumatrans : * One end is sharpened 
and charred in the fire, and when thus prepared it will pierce any armour much 
better than iron would do.'* The weapon would be fashioned by the patient 
labour of days and weeks, by burying in hot ashes, by steaming and smoking, by 
charring and friction, by scraping with shells and the teeth of rodents, and by 
polishing with a variety of materials : for instance, with the rasping and shagreen- 
like skin of many fishes, notably the ray ; with rough-coated grasses, and with the 
leaves of the various * sandpaper-trees * which are hispid as a cat's tongue. And 
the first step in advance would be dressing with silex, obsidian, and other cutting 
stones, and finishing with pumice or with the mushroom-shaped corallines. I shall 
reserve for the next chapter a description of the sabre de bois^ unjustly associated 
in the popular saying with the pistolet de paille. 

Bone, which includes teeth, presented to savage man a hard and durable mate- 
rial for improving his coarse wooden weapons. Teledamus or Telegonus, son of 
Circe and founder of Tusculum ' and Praeneste, according to tradition slew his father, 
Ulysses, with a lance-head of fish bone — aculeum marince belluce. The teeth of the 
Squalus and other gigantum ossa or megatherian remains supplied points for the 
earliest projectiles, and added piercing power to the blow of the club. That a Bone 
Age may be traced throughout the world,* and that the phrase a * bone- and stone- 
using people * is correct, was proved by the Weltausstellung of Vienna (1873), whose 

* In Denmark the division b marked even by the * Servios, ad /Emid, ii. 44, *Sic notus Ulysses.' 
vegetation. The Stone Age lies buried under the * Col. A. Lane Fox {Prim, fVar,, p. 24) no- 
fir-trees ; tlie oak-stratum conceals the Bronzes, and tices the bone implements of the French caves and 
the Iron Age is covered by birch and elders (Jahns, their resemblance, amounting almost to identity, with 
p. 2). those found in Sweden, among the Elskimos, and the 

• Yule's Marco Polo^ ii. 208. savages of Tierra del Fuego. 



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24 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



splendid collection found an able describer in Prof. A. Woldrich.* The caves of 
venerable Moustier (D^partement Dordogne), of Belgium, and of Lherm (Ddparte- 
ment Arri^ge) contributed many jawbones of the cave bear {Ursus spelcEus) \ the 
ascending ramus of the inferior maxilla had been cut away to make a convenient 
grip, and the strong comer-teeth formed an implement or an instrument, a tool or 
a weapon. The caves of Peggau in Steiermark (Styria), of Palkau in Moravia, and 
the Pfahlbauten * or Pile-villages of Olmiitz, produced a number of bone articles 
and remnants of the cave bear. These rude implements remind us of the weapon 
used to such good effect by the Biblical Samson, the Hebrew type of Hercules, the 
strong man, the slayer of monsters, and the Sun-god (Shamsiin).' 



\ 




G. 17.— Deer-Horn 


Fig. 18. - Horn War Clubs 


Fig. 19. 


Fig. 20.— 


Arrow-Hbad. 


WITH Metal Points. 


Double Spear 


Spine of 


(8. America.) 




AND Shield. 


DiODON. 



Fig. ai.— 1. Walrus Tooth 
USED AS Spear Point ; 
a. Tomahawk of Walrus 
Tooth. 

The wilder tribes of Cambodia convert the bony horn ot the sword-fish into a 
spear head, with which they confidently attack the rhinoceros.* At Kotzebue 
Sound Captain Beechey found lances made of a wooden staff ending in a walrus- 
tooth ; and this defence was also adapted to a tomahawk-point. The New Guinea 
tribes tip their arrows with the teeth of the saw-fish and the spines of the globe-fish 
{Diodon and Triodon), The horny style of the Malaccan king-crab {Lintulus), a 



• MUtheilungen <Ur Wien, Anihrop, GeseUschaft, 
Vienna, 1874. 

• Pfaklbau (pfahl-paius) was originally applied 
to the pile- villages of the Swiss waters ( 71u Lake* 
Dwellings of Switzerland^ by Dr. Ferdinand Keller). 

• Wilkinson opines that the Egyptian Khons or 
Khonsu, the new moon of the year which appeared 



at the autumnal equinox when the < world was made,' 
becomes the Biblical Sem, and that * Sampson ' is 
Sem-Kon, or Sun-fire. Jablonski {Pantheon EgyP' 
tiorum) supported the theory that Son, Sem, Con, 
Khons, or Djom was the god or genius of the summer 
sun. 

* Travels into Indo-China, &c. ii. 147, by Henri 
Mouhot, 1858-59. 



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THE 'BONE age: 



25 



Crustacean sometimes reaching two feet in length, is also made into an arrow-pile.^ 
The Australians of King George's Sound arm their spears with the acute barbules 
of fishes ; and the natives of S. Salvador, when discovered by Columbus, pointed 
their lances with fish-teeth. The Greenlander's * nuguit ' (fig. 23) is mentioned by 
Crantz as armed with the narwhal's horn, and the wooden handle is carved in 
relief with two human figures. By its side is another spear (fig. 24) with a beam in 
narwhal-shape, the foreshaft being composed of a similar ivory, inserted into the 
snout so as to represent the natural defence. Here we see the association in the 




Fig. 92.— Sting of 

Malaccan 

LiHULUs Crab. 





Fig. 24.— Narwhal 

Shaft and 

Metal Blade. 





Fig. 23.— The Greenland Nuguit. 



Fig. 25.— Jade Pattu-Pattus. 



maker's mind between the animal from which the weapon is derived and the 
purpose of destruction for which it is chiefly used. It also illustrates the well-nigh 
universal practice amongst savages of making their weapons to imitate animate 
forms. The reason may be a superstition which still remains to be explained. 

Foreshafts and heads of bone are still applied to the arrows of the South 
African Bushmans. They alternate with wood, chert, and metal throughout the 
North American continent, from Eskimo-land to California. A notable resem- 
blance has been traced between the bone-club of the Nootka Sound * Indians,' and 



» * Pile,* applied to the arrow-head (as *quarrer 
to the bolt of the crossbow), is a congener of the 
German pfeil^ an arrow. The Scandinavian is pila^ 



the Anglo-Saxon /*/, apparently a congener of the 
Latin pilum. 



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26 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



the jade Pattu-Pattu or Meri of New Zealand. Hence it has been suspected that 
this short, flat weapon, oval or leaf-shaped, and made to hold in the hand, as if it 
were a stone celt, was originally an imitation of the os humeri. Like the celt, also, 
is the stone club found by Colonel A. Lane Fox in the bed of the Bawn river, north 
Ireland.* 

The long bones of animals, with the walls of marrow-holes obliquely cut and 
exposing the hollow, were fastened upon sticks and poles, forming formidable darts 
and spears. The shape thus suggests the bamboo arrowheads of the North 
Americans, whose cavity also served to carry poison.* They would, moreover, 
easily be fashioned by fracture, and by friction upon a hard and rough-grained 
substance, into Swords and daggers. The Fenni, or Finns, of Tacitus (* Germ.' c. 46), 
having no iron, used bone-pointed arrows. The Innuits, or Eskimos, of Greenland 



^ 



i 



^ Fig. 27. 


Fig. 98. 


Fig. 39. 


Fig. 30. 


U Wildb's Dagger. 


Hollow Bonb 


Bone Knife. 


Bone Arrow-Point 




for Poison. 




armed with Flint 


Fig. 26. 






Flakes. 


1. Bonk Arrow- point 








FOR Poison ; a. Iron Arrow- 








head FOR Poison. (S. America.) 









Fig. 31. 



and other parts of the outer north, form with the ribs of whales their shuttles as 
well as their Swords. In ' Flint Chips ' we find that the ancient Mexicans had 
bone-daggers. Wilde ^ gives a unique specimen of such a weapon found in the 
bed of the River Boyne * in hard blue clay, four feet under sand, along with some 
stone spear-heads.' Formed out of the leg-bone of one of the large ruminants, it 
measures ten and a sixth inches long, the rough handle being only two and a half 
inches * ; the blade is smooth, and wrought to a very fine point. This skeyne (the 



» Ulster Journal of Archaology for 1857. 

« The Dacota tribe is said still to * doctor * the 
bullet by filling with venom four drilled holes, which 
are covered by pressing down the projecting lips or 
rims of the metal. Unfortunately, travellers tell us 
that the venom is the cuticle of the cactus, which is 
quite harmless. The Papuans tip their arrows with 
a human bone, which is poisoned by being thrust 



into a putrid corpse. Hence, they say, Commodore 
Goodenough met his death. 

■ P. 258, Descriptive Catalogue of the Antiquities 
in the Royal Irish Academy^ by the late (Sir) William 
R. Wilde. The Greeks, from the days of Homer, 
followed by the Romans, considered the use of 
poisoned arrows a characteristic of the barbarian. 

* The learned author adds, * thus confirming the 



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'AGES' BEFORE THE 'STONE AGE! 27 

Irish * scjan ' *) looks like a little model of a metal cut-and-thrust blade (fig. 27). 
Equally interesting is the knife-blade (fig. 29) found with many other specimens of 
manufactured bone in the BalHnderry * Crannog ' ' (county Westmeath) : the total 
length is eight inches, and the handle is highly decorated. Other bone knives are 
mentioned in the * Catalogue ' (pp. 262-63). Bone prepared for making handles, 
and even ferules, for Swords and daggers is also referred to (p. 267) : the material, 
being easily worked and tolerably durable, has, indeed, never fallen into disuse. 
In the shape of ivory,' walrus-tusk, and hippopotamus-tooth it is an article of 
luxury extensively used in the present day for the hafts of weapons and domestic 
implements. Lastly, bone served as a base to carry mere trenchant substances. 
The museum of Professor Sven Nilsson^ shows (fig. 31) a smooth, sharp-pointed 
splinter, some six inches long, gfrooved in each side to about a quarter of an inch 
deep. In each of these grooves, fixed by means of cement, was a row of sharp- 
edged and slightly curved bits of flint. A similar implement (fig. 30) is represented 
in the illustrated catalogue of the Museum of Copenhagen. Of this contrivance I 
shall speak at length when treating of the wooden Sword.* 

While bone was extensively used by primitive Man, horn was the succedaneum 
in places where it was plentiful. The Swiss lake-dwellings have yielded stag's 
horn and wooden hafts or helves, with bored holes and sockets ; borers, awls or 
drills ; muUers, rubbers, and various other instruments. The caverns of the Reindeer 
period in the south of France are not less rich. Stag-horn axes are common in 
Scandinavia, and one preserved by the Stockholm Museum bears the spirited 
outline of a deer. Beads, buttons, and other ornaments are found in England. 
This material, when taken from the old stag, is of greater density than osseous 
matter and of almost stony hardness, as the cancellated structure contains car- 
bonate of lime ; moreover it was easily worked by fire and steam. 

Diodorus (iii. cap. 15) describes the Ichthyophagi as using antelopes' horns in 
their fishing, * for need teacheth all things.' The earliest mention of a horn-arm 
is by Homer (* Iliad,' ii. 827, and iv. 105), who describes Pandarus, the Lycian, son 
of Lycaon, using a bow made of the six-spans-long ^ spoils of the * nimble 

opinion (deduced from the size of the hafts of our to jingle with their silver catella (chains), and their 

bronze Swords) that the hands of the race who used belts with the plates of silver {baltea laminis crepl- 

them were very small. * I can hardly agree with him, tant) that inlay them.' It will be seen that Divus 

and will give reasons in a future page. Caesar had juster and more soldier-like views. Scipio 

* Wilde writes : * Sceana, which is the plural of the younger, when shown a fine shield by a youth, 
scjan^ a knife,* the Scotch sgian-dhu^ or skcm (Rev. said : * It is really beautiful ; but a soldier should 
Paul 0*Brien*s Practical Grammar and Vocabulary rely more on his right arm than on his left arm.* 

of the Irish Language^ Dublin : Fitzpatrick, 1809).* * Of Lund, Sweden. The Primitive Inhabitants 

* It is better to write Crannog, lest the word be of Scandinavia^ &c., translated by Sir John Lubbock, 
pronounced *crannoje.* It derives from the Irish Nilsson is quoted and illustrated by Col. A. Lane 
crann (a tree, e.g. crann oia = 2Xi olive-tree), and Fox {Prim. War. p. 135), and by Wilde (p. 254) 
properly means a platform or plank-floor. from the Scandinaviska Nordens Ur-Imanetre^ 1843. 

* Pliny, the grumbler, complains (xxxiii. 54) : * Chapter III. 

* Our very soldiers, holding even ivory in contempt, • A commentator volunteers the information that 

have their capuli (sword-hilts) inlaid or chased (r<rA the bow was tipped with ram*s-hom. Nor is there 
entur) with silver ; their vagina (scabbards) are heard any need to translate * goat * by ibex. 



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28 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

mountain-goat.' The weapon may have retained the original form. The early 
Greek types were either simple or composite. The Persians ' preferred, and till 
lately used, wood and horn, stained, varnished, and adorned as much as possible. 
Duarte Barbosa * describes the Turkish bow at Hormuz Island as * made of 
buffalo-horn and stiff wood painted with gold and very pretty colours.* The 
* Homboge * occurs in the * Nibelungenlied,' and the Hungarians appeared in Europe 
with horn-bows and poisoned arrows. 

The bows of the Sioux and Yutahs are of horn, backed with a strip of raw 
hide to increase the spring. The Blackfoot bow is made from the horn of the 
mountain -sheep (Catlin), and the Shoshone of the Rocky Mountains shape it by 
heating and wetting the horn, which is combined with wood (Schoolcraft). The 
Eskimos of Polar America, where nothing but drift-timber is procurable, are com- 
pelled to build their weapons with several bits of wood, horn, and bone, bent into 
form by smoking or steaming. 

Admirable bows of buffalo-horn — small, but throwing far, and strong — are still 
made in the Indus-valley about Multan. For this use the horns are cut, scraped, 
thinned to increase elasticity ; joined at the bases by wooden splints, pegs, or nails, 
and made to adhere by glue and sinews. Man would soon learn to sharpen his 
wooden shafts with horn-points, the spoils of his prey. Hence the ancient 
Egyptians applied horn to their light arrows of reed.' The Christy collection 
contains an arrow from South America (?) armed with a pile of deer-horn. The 
Melville Peninsula, being scant of materials, uses as arrow-piles the horns of a 
musk-ox {pviboSy more ovis than bos\ and the thinned defences of the reindeer 
strengthened by sinews. Antelope-horns are still used as lanee-points by the 
Nubians, the Shilluks, and the Denkas of the Upper Nile ; by the Jibbus of 
Central Africa, and by the tribes of the southern continent* The * Bantu ' or 
Kafir races, Zulus and others, make their kiri (kerry) either of wood or of 
rhinoceros-horn. It varies from a foot to a yard long, and is capped by a knob as 
large as a hen's egg or a man's fist : hence it is called * knob-stick ' or * throw- 
stick.* The Ga-ne-u-ga-o-dus-ha (deer-horn war-club) of the Iroquois ended in a 
point of about four inches long ; since the people had intercourse with Europeans 
they have learned to substitute metal. The form suggests that the martel-de-fer 
of Persia and India, used by Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 
was derived from a weapon of this kind : suitable points for arming it have been 
found in England and Ireland. The Dublin Museum (case 21, Petrie) contains an 
antler of the red deer converted into a thrusting weapon. The Jumbiyah (crooked 

* Pemberton, Travels. of the Ancient Egyptians^ i. chap. 5, mentions only 

tips of hard wood, flint, and metaJs. 

« Hakluyt's edit., p. 43. The index to this * The Roteiro or Ruttur of the Voyage of Vasco 

publication is very defective : one must look through da Gama (p. 5, Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional) speaks of 

the whole volume for a line of quotation. I shall tribes about the Cape of Good Hope armed with 

again notice it in the next chapter. horn- weapons 'worked by fire* {huuns comes tos- 

tados). I should suggest that * corncs * is an error for 

• Wilkinson (Sir J. Gardner), A Popular Account pdos (wooden staves). 



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THE 'HORN •age: 



29 



dagger) of the Arabs, the Khanjar* of Persia and India, whence the Iberian 
Alfdnge (El-Khanjar) and our silly * hanger,' shows by form and point that it was 
originally the half of a buffalo-horn split longitudinally. The modern weapon, 
with metal blade and ivory handle, has one side of the latter flat, betraying its 
origin by retaining a peculiarity no longer required. The same is the case when 
the whole Jumbiyah is, as often happens, made of metal ^ (fig. 6, p. 10). 

The sufficiency of horn for the slender wants of uncivilised communities was 
admirably illustrated by the discovery of a Pfahlbau, or crannog, some three miles 
south of Laibach, the capital of Carniola, and a little north of the Brunnsdorf 
village. The site is a low mountain-girt basin, formerly a lake or broad of the 
Lai-cum-Sava river, and still flooded after heavy rains. Surface- 
finds were picked up in 1854-55, and regular explorations began in 
July 1875.' During that year two hundred articles were dug up. 
The material was chiefly stag-horn, tines, and beams, the latter often 
cut at the burr or antler-crown. The chief objects — many of them 
artistic as those of the French * Reindeer epoch ' — were hatchets, 
hammers, needles, spindles, and punches of horn and split bone ; fish- 
hooks, pincers, and skin-scrapers of hog's tusks ; with ornaments set 
in bone, and teeth bored for stringing. Many of these articles 
showed signs of the saw-kerf or notch which had probably been cut 
with sanded fibre acting like a file. There were harpoon-heads of 
peculiar shape, supposed to be unpierced whistles, the hole not 
having been bored through * : evidently they were made to * unship * 
when striking the Welsen {Silurt) of the old lake, some of which must have been 




Fig. 3a. 
Harpck)n Head. 



' The khanjar proper is shaped like a yataghan, 
of which more presently. 

' I avoid treating of armour in a book devoted to 
the Sword ; but the Horn Age compels me to show, in 
a few words, how that material, combined with hoofs, 
gave rise to scale armour. Pausanias, confirmed by 
Tacitus, informs us that the Sarmatians (Slavs) pre- 
pared the horse-hoofs of their large herds and sewed 
them with nerves and sinews to overlap like the sur- 
face of a fir-cone. He adds that this lorica was not 
inferior in strength or in elegance to the metal-work 
of the Greeks. The Emperor Domitian wore a cors- 
let of boars' -hoofs stitched together ; and a fragment 
of such horn-armour was found at Pompeii. Ammi- 
anus Marcellinus describes the Sarmatians and the 
Quadi as protected by loricas of horn-flakes planed, 
polished, and fastened like feathers upon a linen 
sheet. A defence composed of the hoofs of some 
animal, made to hold together without the aid of an 
inner jerkin, and used in some parts of Asia, is repre- 
sented in Meyrick (plate iii. ). A stone figure of old 
type similarly defended, and bearing an inscription 
in a dialect cognate with Greek, appears in vol. iii. 
youm, ArchfToL Assoc, Herodotus (vii. 76) tells us 
of a people, whose name has disappeared, that, in 



addition to their brazen helmets, they wore the ears 
and horns of an ox in brass. This horn-helmet shows 
the savage practice of defending the head with the 
skins of beasts and their appendages. 

■ The Pfahlbauten im Laibacher Moraste were 
first noticed in the Neue FreU Pnsse, August 27, 
1875 ; secondly, by the Neue Deutsche Alpenuitung^ 
of Vienna, Sept. 4, 1875 ; thirdly, by Herr Gustos 
Deschmann (to whom the discovery is attributed) in 
his paper Die Pfahlbauten auf dem Lcubacher Moore 
(Verhand. der Wiener K. K. Geolog. Reichsan- 
stalt, Nov. 16, 1875) ; and, fourthly, by Carl Frei- 
herr von Czoernig, whose study {JJeber die Vorkis- 
torischen Funde im Laibacher Torfmoor) was read 
at the Alpine Society of Trieste on December 8, 
1875. Between that time and 1880 the subject has 
been illustrated by many writers. The course of 
discovery also has been * forwards ; ' and the whole 
moor was about to be drained in 1881. 

* Perhaps this may explain the * pierced imple- 
ments of unknown use * found with harpoon-heads of 
reindeer-horn in a cavern near Bruniguel, France. 
Two picks made of reindeer-antlers were produced 
by the * Grimes Graves,' Westing Parish, Norfolk. 



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30 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



six feet long. The wooden foreshaft, joined by a string to its head, acted as 
float, and betrayed the position of the prey. This is the third stage of the harpoon : 
the first would be merely a heavy, pointed stick, and the second a spear with 
barbs. There were six horn Dolche (daggers), and one peculiar article, an edge 
of polished stone set in a horn-handle : the latter shows at once the abundance 
of game, and the value and rarity of the mineral, which probably belonged 
only to the rich. The eight stone implements were of palaeolithic type ; the few 
metal articles— a leaf-shaped sword-blade, a rude knife, lance-heads, arrow-piles, 
needles, and bodkins — were chiefly copper, five only being bronze ; and the pottery 
corresponds with that of the neolithic period in the museums of Copenhagen and 
Stockholm. Thus the find, like several in Switzerland, showed a great preponder- 
ance of horns, bones, and teeth during a transitional age when the rest of Europe 
was using polished stone and metal* 

Prehistoric finds are still common in the Laibacher moorg^ound ( 1 882). Lauerza, 
a hamlet on the edge of the swamp, supplied (Nov. 7) a large stone-axe {Steinbeil)^ 
pierced and polished, of the quartzose conglomerate common in the adjacent 
highlands. This article was exceptional, most of the stone implements being 
palaeolithic. At Aussergoritz appeared remnants of pottery and Roman tiles, a 
broken hairpin of bronze, a spear of Roman type, and a * palstab,* * also of bronze : 
the latter is the normal chisel-shaped hatchet with the flanges turned over for 
fitting to the handle ; it measures i6'S cent long by 35 of diameter at the lower 
part The sands of Grosscup also yielded sundry fine bronze armlets of Etruscan 
make found upon embedded skeletons. All the finds have been deposited in the 
Provincial Museum at Laibach. 

The use of horn, like that of bone, has survived to the present day, and still 
appears in the handles of knives, daggers, and swords. It is of many varieties, 
and it fetches different prices according to the texture, the markings, and other 
minutiae known to the trade.* 



* The animal remains were of bears, wolves, 
lynxes, beavers, badgers (probably the cave-species), 
liogs, goats, sheep (differing in the jaw-bone from 
<nn5)y dogs (common, and not eaten), and cattle 
with small teeth like those of the aurochs. The 
bird-bones resembled those of the common duck. 
Man was rare, suggesting that the pile-villagers buried 
on the adjacent slopes ; the only human * find ' was 
an inferior maxilla with teeth much worn. 

• The word pacUstab^ palstab^ or pcUstave is 
usually translated • labouring-staff,* from at ptda or 
pala^ to labour, labourer. Dr. John Evans {BronzeSy 
&c.,p. 72) prefers / spade-staff,* the verb being ai 



palay to dig, and the noun /a//, a spade, spud, shovel ; 
the Latin pala^ the French pelU^ and our (baker's) 
peel, or wooden shoveL He confines the term * pal- 
stave * to two forms ; the first is the winged celt with 
the lateral extensions hammered to make a socket ; 
the second is the spud-shaped form, with a thinner 
blade above than below the side-flanges. 

* M. Kugelmann, of Hamburg — a wholesale mer- 
chant, who kindly showed me his warehouse — pre- 
fers the horns of the North American and Japanese 
stag, especially when buttons are to be made of the 
crown. 



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31 



CHAPTER III. 

THE WEAPONS OF THE AGE OF WOOD : THE BOOMERANG AND THE SWORD 
OF WOOD ; OF STONE, AND OF WOOD AND STONE COMBINED 

The Sword of Wood, 

The * Age of Wood ' began early, lasted long, and ended late. As the practice of 
savages shows, the spear was originally a pointed stick hardened in the fire ; and 
arrows, the diminutives of the spear, as daggers are of the Sword, were tipped with 
splinters of bamboo, whose Tabdshir or silicious bark acted like stone. The Peru- 
vians, even after they could beat out plates of gold and silver, fought with pikes 
having no iron tips, but with the points hardened in the fire.* The same was the 
case with the Australians,* who, according to Mr. Howard Spensley,' also fashioned 
Swords of very hard wood : the Arabs of the Tihdmat or Lowlands of Hazramaut 
(the Biblical Hazramaveth) are still compelled by poverty to use spears with- 
out metal. I pass over the general use of this world-wide material to the epoch 
when it afforded a true Sword. 

The wooden Sword, as we see from its wide dispersion, must have arisen spon- 
taneously among the peoples who had reached that stage of civilisation where it 
became necessary.* These weapons were found in the hands of the Indians of 
Virginia by the well-known Captain John Smith. Writing in 1606, Oldfield de- 
scribes swords of heavy black wood in the Sandwich Islands, and Captain Owen 
Stansley in New Guinea. Mr. Consul Hutchinson notes the wooden swords used 
by the South American Itonanamas, a sub-tribe of the Maxos. Those preserved in 
Ireland and others brought from the Samoa Islands will be noticed in a future 

* Reports on the Discovery of Peru, by Clements The power of steam, as a whirling toy and a copper 
R. Markham, C.B., p. 53 (London : Hakluyt Soc vessel prove, was familiar to the old Egyptians, and 
1872). perhaps to the Greeks and Romans under the name 

* Oldfield's 'Aborigines of Australia * [Trans, Eth, oiaolipyla {al6kov irvKcu). But only at the end of 
Soc,), The author was employed (1 86 1) in collecting the last century its motive force attracted general 
specimens of timber for the International Exhibition. attention ; it became a necessary of civilised life, and 

' Commissioner for Victoria at the Geographical at once superseded the sailer and the stage coach. 

Congress of Venice, September 1881. And by aid of the Past we may project the Future. 

^ It is instructive to note the novel application of Man will bungle over the balloon, but he will never 

old inventions to general use when the necessities of fly straight till railways and steamers become too 

the age demand them. The detonating and explosive slow for him : when • levitation,' in fact, shall become 

force of gunpowder was known, in the form of squibs a necessity. Now the mode of transit would be an 

and fireworks, centuries before firearms were required. unmitigated evil to humanity. 



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32 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



I 



page. They may mostly be characterised as flat clubs sharpened at the edge, and 
used like our steel blades. 

The shape of the wooden sword greatly varies, and so does its origin. Mr. 
Tylor fell into the mistake, so common in these classifying, generalising, and sim- 
plifying days, of deriving the sabre, because it is a cutting tool, from the axe, and 

the tuck or rapier from the spear because it thrusts. Wooden 
mK sword-blades alone have three prototypes, viz. : — 

Ull \ I- The club, 

yil j 1 2. The throwstick. 

3. The paddle. 
I. The Bulak Museum (Cairo) ^ shows two good specimens 

of the ancient * Lisin ' (* tongue '-weapon) club or curved stick. 

The first battles, says Pliny (vii. 57), were fought by the Africans 

against the Egyptians with clubs which 

they called phalangce. The shorter club- 
sword (i ft. II in.) has a handle ribbed 

with eighteen fine raised rings. The longer 

or falchion-shaped weapon (2 ft. 5 in.) is 

hatched at the grip with a cross pattern. 

Both are of hard wood blackened by age, 

and both have the distinct cutting edge. 

The ancient war-club was tipped with 

metal and whipped with thongs round the 

handle for firmer grasp, like the Roman 

fasces. The modern Lisin-club, made of 

tough mimosa-wood and about 2\ ft long, 

is still used in close combat by the Ne- 
groid tribes of the Upper Nile. To the 

Bishirins and Amri the Lisdn supplies, at 

dances and on festal occasions, the place 

of the sword. In Abyssinia there is a 
lighter variety (i ft. 6 in.) banded alternately with red, blue, and green cloth, and 
protected by a network of brass wire. The Ababdeh (modem ^Ethiopians), content 
with this, the spear, and its pendant the shield, fear not to encounter tribes whose 
arms are the matchlock and a * formidable looking, but really inoffensive sword 
with a wondrous huge straight blade.' These pastoral Nomads are of a peculiar 
and interesting type. The short stature and the well-curved and delicate limbs, 




Fig. 33.— LisXn in Egypt 
AND Abyssinia. 



Fig. 



[4.— LisXn or 
'onguu. 



» In the Monuments Civils of the Salle de TEst, 
Vitrine A. H., at the south side. I can give only 
the old arrangement, which was changed in 1879-80. 
During my last visit (November 1882) the new order 
had not been completed. These club-swords are 
accompanied by throw-sticks, hatchets, and knob- 



kerries. The old Lisans from Thebes are illustrated 
by Wilkinson (/«■. cit, i. 5). The name, however, is 
not * lissan,' and they are not made of acacia, a soft 
wood that readily perishes. Why will writers con- 
found acacia and mimosa ? 



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THE BOOMERANG. 33 

whose action is quick, lithe, and graceful as the leopard's, connect them with the 
Bedawin of Arabia ; while the knotted and spiral locks standing on end, and 
resembling when tallowed a huge cauliflower, affiliate them to the African Somal. 
Their arms are more extensive than their dress, a mere waist cloth, the primi- 
tive attire of tropical man ; and they live by hiring their camels to caravans. 

The Dublin Museum * also shows the transitional forms between the club and 
the Sword. The weapon {ci) numbered 143 is some twenty-five inches long : the 
second (^) is labelled * No. 144, wooden club-shaped implement, twenty-seven inches 
long.' 

The club of the Savage developed itself in other directions to the shepherd's 
staff, the bishop's crozier, and the king's sceptre ; hence, too, the useless bdton of 
the field-marshal, and the maces of Mr. Speaker and My Lord Mayor. Here we 
may answer the question why the field-marshal should carry a stick instead of a 
Sword. The unwarlike little instrument is simply the symbol of high authority : ^ 
it is the rod, not of the Lictor, but of the Centurion, whose badge of office was a 
vine-sapling wherewith to enforce authority. Hence Lucan(vi. 146) says of gallant 
Captain Cassius Scaeva who, after many wounds, beat off two swordsmen : — 

Sanguine multo 
Promotus Latiam longo gerit ordine vitem. 

This use was continued by the drill-sergeant of Europe from England to Russia. 
The club again survives in the constable's staff and the policeman's truncheon. 

The form of throwing-stick, which we have taught ourselves to call by an Aus- 
tralian name * boomerang,* ' thereby unduly localising an almost universal weapon 
from Eskimo-land to Australia, was evidently a precursor of the wooden Sword. It 
was well known to the ancient Egyptians. Wilkinson shows (vol. i. chap. 4) that 
it was of heavy wood, cut flat, and thus offering the least resistance, measuring 
I ft. 3 in. to 2 ft. long by i^ in. broad. The shape, however, is not the usual seg- 
ment of a circle, but a shallow S-curve inverted O), more bent at the upper end, 
and straighter in the handle. One weapon (p. 236) seems to bear the familiar asp- 
head.* The British Museum contains a boomerang brought from Thebes by the 

' The arrangement of the Swords when I last enamelled in black. The king solemnly gave the 

visited the collection (August 1878) was temporary * Marshall's rod ' into the hands of Maude, daughter 

till classified. The wooden blades referred to were of the Earl of Pembroke, who made it over to her 

in the Petrie Section (Case 21) to the east. son, Earl Roger. 

' So the sovereign of England appointed his Lord ' It derives from hooroomooroong ; and the latter 

High Treasurer by handing over to him a white rod, denotes, among the Maoris, a part of the ceremonies 

and the Lord Steward of the Household by presenting practised when the boys are being made men. The 

a white staflf with the words : * Seneschal], tenez le symbol, we are told (Collins, New South IVa/eSf 

bdton de nostre hostiell.* Holding the staflf was p. 346), is knocking out a tooth with the aid of a 

equivalent to the royal commission, and when not in throwing-stick. Mr. Howard Spenseley {lac, ctt,) 

the presence it was carried by a footman bareheaded. makes the average boomerang 60 centimetres long 

On the death of his liege lord the great functionary by o*6 broad and 0*15 thick : he gives it a flight of 

broke the staff over the corpse, and his duties were 100 metres. 

at an end. The Lord Marshall of England was ex- * Strangers in Egypt often suppose the true asp 

pressly permitted to bear a gold truncheon with the to be the Cerastes, or homed snake. As the hiero- 

royal amis at one end, and on the other his own glyphics and the monuments prove, it b invariably 



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34 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



Rev. Greville Chester, and a facsimile was exhibited by General Pitt-Rivers.» The 
end is much curved ; the blade has four parallel grooves, and it bears the cartouche 
of Ramses the Great In no instance have we found the round shape and the re- 
turning flight of its Australian congener. Three illustrations « show a large sports- 




Fic. 35.— Transition prom thk Boombrang to thb Hatchbt (Australia). 

man (the master) bringing down birds which rise from a papyrus-swamp, while a 
smaller figure (the slave) in the same canoe holds another weapon at arm's length. 
Strabo* describes the (Belgian) Gauls as hunting with a piece of wood resem- 
bling a pilum, which is hand-thrown, and which flies to a distance farther than an 




Fig. 36.— Austrauan Picks. 
I, a. Pick of New Caledonia ; 3. Malga or Leowel Pick. 



arrow. He calls it the Fpoo-^o^, which is also described as a pilum, dart, or javelin 
by Polybius ; * but evidently this Grosphus means the throw-stick, usually termed 
by the Greeks arfKvXri (Ancyle). Silius Italicus arms in the * Punica ' one of the 

the cobra de capello {Coluber Haja)y an inhabitant of the neighbourhood of the Indian Ocean, and deny it 
Africa as well as of Asia. The colour of this deadly to Europe and America. 



thanatophid — which annually kiUs thousands in India 
— varies with its habitat from light yellow to dull 
green and dark brown. The worst I ever saw are 
upon the Guinea Coast. 

» Anthrop. Soc. July 11, 1882. General Pitt- 



« Loc, cit, vol. I chap. iv. pp. 235, 236, 237, in 
the abridged edition. 

» Lib. iv. 4, § 3. 

* Pragmateia^ vi. 22, § i; a fragmentary but ad- 



Rivers, I believe, would localise the boomerang to mirable account of the Roman army. 



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THE BOOMERANG. 



35 



Libyan tribes which accompanied Hannibal with a bent or crossed cateia : the 
latter is identified with the throw-stick by Doctor (now Sir) Samuel Ferguson, poet 
and antiquary.* The encyclopaedia of Bishop Isidore (A.D. 600-636) explicitly de- 
fines the cateia to be * a species of bat which, when thrown, flies not far by reason 




Fic. 37.— Indian Boomerangs. 

I. War Hatchet, Jibba Negros ; 2. Steel Chakra, or Sikh Quoit ; 3. Steel CoIIery ; 4, 5. CoUery of Madras, with 

knobbed handle. 

of its weight ; but where it strikes it breaks through with extreme impetus, and if 
it be thrown with a skilful hand it returns to him who threw it: — rursum redit ad 
eum qui misit' Virgil also notices it : — 

Et quos maliferae despectant moenia Abellae 
Teutonico ritu soliti torquere cateias. i^/En, vii. 740). 

Jahn (p. 410) * remembers the Miolner, or hammer of Thor, which flew back to the 
hand. 

It has been noted that this peculiarity of reversion or back-flight is not generic, 
even in the true boomerang, but appertains only to specific forms. Doubtless it was 
produced by accident, and, when found useful for bringing down birds over rivers 
or marshes, it was retained by choosing branches with a suitable bend. The shapes 
greatly differ in weight and thickness, in curvature and section. Some are of the 
same breadth throughout ; others bulge in the centre ; while others are flat on one 
side and convex on the other. In most specimens the fore part of the lath is slightly 
* dished ' : hence the bias causes it to rise in the air on the principle of a screw- 
propeller. The thin edge of the weapon is always opposed to the wind, meeting 
the least resistance. The axis of rotation, when parallel to itself, makes the missile 



* Trans, Irish Assoc, vol. xix. The Romans 
also called it aclys (j^n. vii. 730), which the dic- 
tionaries render as a *kind of dart.* It was an 
archaic and barbarian weapon ; and Virgil {yEn, 
vii. 730) attributes it to the Osci : — 

Teretes sunt aclydes illis 
Tela : sed hsec lento mos est aptare flagello. 

This would mean that after the weapon is thrown it 
might be drawn back again with a leather thong. 



Possibly the ca/cia ot Isidore {ca^ta, to cut or 
mangle, and ca/att, to fight ; the Irish CAr and 
the Welsh >ta</, a fight or a corps of fighters, Latin 
ca/erva), survives in the tipro/. In the Keltic dialect 
of Wales calai is a weapon. 

* See his learned note (p. 410) on the weapon 
and on Isidore {On'g. xviii. 7) : ' Hsec est cateia quara 
Horatius cajam dicit. * The disputed word probably 
derives from the Keltic kcUtcn^ to cast, to throw. 



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36 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



ascend as long as the forward movement lasts, by the action of the atmosphere on 
the lower side. When the impulse ceases it falls by the line of least resistance, 

that is, in the direction of the edge 
which lies obliquely towards the 
thrower. In fact, it acts like a kite with 
a suddenly broken string, dropping 
for a short distance. But as long as 
the boomerang gyrates, which it does 
after the forward movement ends, 
it continues to revolve on the same 
inclined plane by which it ascended 
until it returns to whence it came. 
This action would also depend upon 
weight ; the heavy weapons could not 
rise high in the air, and must drop by mere gravity before coming back to the thrower. 
From Egypt the weapon spread into the heart of Africa. The Abyssinian 




BOOMBRANG AND RiTB. 




Fig. 39.— African Boomerangs. 18 

1, a. Hunga-inung:a : 3. African Weapon ; 4. Kordofan Weapon : 5. The same developed : 6. Faulchion of Mundo Tribe : 7. The 
same developed : 8. Jibba Nceros : 9. Knob-stick; 10. Ancient Egyptians (Roselfini) ; ii. Old Egyptian; 12-15, Tomahawks 
of Nyam-Nyams ; 16. Fan (Mpangwe) Tomahawk ; 17. Dor Battle-axe ; 18. Dinka and Shilluk Weapon. 

* Trombash ' is of hard wood, acute-edged, and about two feet long ; the end turns 
sharply at an angle of 30**, but the weapon does not whirl back.* The boomerang 

» MU Tributaries^ by Sir Samuel W. Baker, *tombat,* a similar weapon in Australia (Col. A 
p. 51. The word has a curious likeness to the Lane- Fox, Anthrop. Coll. p. 31). 



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THE BOOMERANG. 



37 



of the Nyam-Nyams is called kulbeda. Direct derivation is also shown by the 

curved iron projectile of the Mundo tribe on the Upper Nile, a weapon of the same 

form being represented on the old Egyptian monuments. The * hunga-munga ' of the 

negros south of Lake Chad, and the adjoining peoples, shows a further development 

of spikes or teeth disposed at different angles, enabling g 

the missile to cut on both sides. The varieties of this 

form, with a profusion of quaint ornaments, including 

lateral blades which answer the purpose of wings, and 

which deal a severer wound, are infinite. Denham and 

Clapperton give an illustration of a Central African 

weapon forming the head and neck of a stork. So the 




Fig. 40.— Transition from thb Malga, Leowbl or Pick to tmb Boomerang (Australia). 

Mpangwe negros * of the Gaboon River, West Africa, shape their missiles in the 
form of a bird's head, the triangular aperture (fig. 40, No. 5) representing the eye. 



* The ' Fans ' of M. du Chaillu, a corruption un- 
fortunately adopted by popular works. In Corilla- 
Land (i. 207) I have noticed the Niyin, or Mpangwe 
crossbow (with poisoned ebe^ or dwarf bolt), which 
probably travelled up-Nile like the throw-stick. The 
cUtente and method of releasing the string from its 



notch are those of the toy forms of the European 
weapon. The Museum at Scarborough contains a 
crossbow from the Bight of Benin. The people of 
Bomu (North-West Africa) also use a crossbow rat- 
trap. 



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38 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



The throwing-stick has been found in Assyrian monuments : Nemnid stran- 
gling the lion holds a boomerang in his right hand. Thence the weapon travelled 
East ; and the Sanskrit Astara, or Scatterer, was extensively used by the pre- 
Aryan tribes of India. The Kolis, oldest known inhabitants of Gujardt, call 
it * Katuriyeh/ a term probably derived from * Cateia * ; the Dravidians of the 
Madras Presidency know it as * Collery/ and the Tamulian Kallar and Marawar (of 





Fig. 41.— The Stick and thk Shieu>. 



1. Various forms of Australian Tamaran^ or Parrying Shields ; 2, Shield of Mundo Ncgros ; 
3. Negro parryini; Shield ; 4. Old Egyptian Parrying Shield ; 5. Dowak straight flat Tftrow- 
stick (Australia) ; 6. Boomerang that does not return ; 7. Boomerang that does return. 





Fig. 42.— Thkow-sticks. 
1 Australian Tombat : a. Malga War-pick ; 3-6. Australian Waddy Clubs ; 7. Hatchet Boomerang. 

Madura), who use it in deer-hunting, term it * Valai Tadi ' (bent stick). The 
Pudukota Rajah always kept a stock in arsenal. The length greatly varies, the 
difference amounting to a cubit or more ; and three feet by a hand-breadth may be the 
average. The middle is bent to the extent of a cubit ; the flat surface with a sharp 
edge is one hand broad. * Its three actions are whirling, pulling, and breaking, and 



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THE BOOMERANG-SWORD. 



39 



it is a good weapon for charioteers and foot soldiers.* Prof. Oppert, writing * On the 
Weapons, &c. of the ancient Hindus ' (1880), tells us that the Museum of the Madras 
Government has two ivory throw-sticks from Tanjore and a common wooden one 
from Pudukota ; his own collection contains four of black wood and one of iron. 
All these instruments return, as do the true boomerangs, to the thrower. The 
specimens in the old India-House Museum conform with the natural curvature of 
the wood, like the Australian ; but, being thicker and heavier, they fall without 
back-flight Not a few of the boomerangs cut with the inner edge, the shapes of 
the blade and of the grip making them unhandy in the extreme. 

From the throw-stick would naturally arise the 
Chakrd, the steel wheel or war-quoit, which the Akdlis 
— a stricter order of Sikhs — carried in their long hair, 
and launched after twirling round the forefinger.* The 
boomerang-shape is also perpetuated in the dreaded 
Kukkri or Gurkha Sword-knife, now used, however, 

only for hand - to - hand 
fighting. I have mentioned 
the Cuchillo or Spanish 
clasp-knife- and the Italian 
sickle-throwing. The Aus- 
tralian weapon was un- 
known, like the shield, 
to Tasmania, whose only 
missile was the Waddy or 
throw-stick. 

As the Australian club, 
swelling at the end, de- 
veloped itself in one di- 
rection, to the Malga (war- 
pick) and hatchet, so on 
the other line it became, 
by being narrowed, flat- 
tened, and curved, the 
boomerang and the boome- 
rang-sword. Finally, the immense variety of curves — some of them bending at a 
right angle — were straightened and made somewhat long-oval and leaf-shaped for 
momentum and impetus. 

The direct descent of the curved wooden Sword of Egypt from the boomerang 
is shown in many specimens. The blade becomes narrow, flat, and more curved ; 






Fig. 43- 

Old Egyptian 

Boomerang. 



Fig. 44. 

BULAK SwORD. 




Fig. 45. 
Hieroglyphic Inscription on 
Wooden Sword, op Bulak. 



* It is called chakarani in the Coasts of East Africa 
and Afalabar Coast^ by Duarte Barbosa or Magel- 
lan (?). The Jibba negroes of Central Africa wear 



a similar weapon as a bracelet, sheathed in a strip of 
hide. 



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40 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



the handle proves that it is no longer a mere missile, and the grip is scored with 
scratches to secure a firmer grasp.* The best specimen known to me is in the 
Bulak Museum.^ It is a light weapon of sycomore wood, measuring in length 
I metre 30 cent. (4 ft. 3 in.), in breadth nearly 1 5 cent (6 in.), and in thickness 
o*2 cent. (078 in.), while the depth of the perpendicular connecting the arc with 
the chord is 10 cent. But what makes it remarkable is that the Sword bears at 
one side the so-called * Cartouche * ' of King Ta-a-a (17th dynasty), and at the other 
end of the same side in a parallelogram the name and titles of Prince * Touaou, the 
servant of his master in his expeditions.* This fine specimen was found with the 
mummy and other articles at the Drah Abu'l-Neggah, the Theban cemetery. 

The paddle or original oar, mostly used by savages with the face to the bow,* 
is of two kinds. The long, pointed spear-like implement serves, as a rule, for 
deeper, and the broad-headed for shallower, waters. Both show clearly the trans- 
itional state beginning with the club and ending with the Sword. 

Mr. J. E. Calder,* describing the Catamaran of the swamp tea-tree {Melaleuca, 
sp.) on the southern and western coasts of Tasmania, says (p. 23) : * The mode of 
its propulsion would shock the professional or amateur waterman. Common sticks, 
with points instead of blades, are all that were used to urge it with its living 
freight through the water, and yet I am assured that its progress is not so very 
slow.* Spears were employed in parts of Australia to paddle the light bark 
canoes,^ and the Nicobar Islanders have an implement combining spear and 
paddle : it is of iron-wood, and of pointed-lozenge shape, about five feet in 
length.^ 

The African paddles, usually employed upon lagoons and inland waters, are 
broad-headed, either rounded off or furnished with one or more short points at the 



> Col. A. Lane-Fox, Anihrop, Coll,, p. 33. For 
a comparative anatomy of the boomerang the reader 
will consult that volume, pp. 28-61. I have here 
noticed only the most remarkable points. 

* The Sword stood in Case 2 of the Salle du 
Centre, numbered 695 ; and was described in p. 225 
of the late Mariette Pasha's catalogue. I cannot 
quite free myself from a suspicion that it was also a 
boomerang of unusual size. Some of the South 
African tribes still use throw-sticks a yard to a yard 
and a half long. 'They are double as thick at one 
end as they are at the other,* says Herr Holub (ii. 
340), * the lighter extremity being in the usual way 
about as thick as one's finger. * 

• This meaningless word {cartuccia^ a scrap of 
paper) was applied by Champollion to the elliptical 
oval containing a group of hieroglyphics. It is simply 
an Egyptian shield (Wilkinson, loc, cii. i. chap. 5), 
and the horizontal line below shows the ground upon 
which it rested. The old Nile-dwellers, like the clas- 
sics of Europe and the modern Chinese, use the shield 
for their characteristics, their heraldic badges, &c. 
The same was the case with our formal heraldry, which 



originated about the time of the Crusades, personal 
S3m[ibolism being its base. As Mr. Hardwick shows, 
the horse, raven, and dragon were old familiar badges ; 
many of our sheep-marks are identical with ' ordi- 
naries,* amd the tribes of Australia used signs to serve 
as kobongs, or crests. Thus, too, in fortification the 
shield became the crenelle and the battlement, and 
it served to * iron-clad * the war-galleys of the piratical 
Norsemen. 

* So there are two ways of swimming. The civi- 
lised man imitates the action of the frog, the savage 
the dog, throwing out the arms and drawing the 
hands towards his chest. 

* youm. Anthrop, InsL vol. iii. pp. 7-29, April 

1873. 

* An illustration is given in Mr. J. G. Wood's 
Natural History of Man, He also quotes Mr. F. 
Baines, who describes the paddles of the North Aus- 
tralians with barbed and pointed looms. 

' Capt. James Mackenzie, in a paper read before 
the Ethno. Soc. by Mr. G. M. Atkinson {Journal, 
vol. ii. No. 2, of July 18, 1870. The paddle is figured 
pi. xiv. 2). 



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THE CLUB-SWORD. 



41 



A 






II la 13 



Fig. 46.— Transition from Celt to Paddle Spear and Sword Forms. 

1. Wooden Club Sword from New Guinea : a. Paddle from New Guinea ; 3. New Zealand Pattu-Pattu, or Men ; 4. Pattu-Pattu 
from the Brazil ; 5. Analogous forms ; 6. Ditto, ditto; 7-10. Club Paddles from Polynesia; 11-13. Wooden Spears from 
Friendly Islands. 






Fig. 47.- -Clubs or Fiji Islands. 



Fig. 48.— Woodek Swords and Clubs of 
Brazilian Indians. 



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42 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



end. Every tribe has its own peculiarities, and a practised eye easily knows the 
people by their paddles. A broad blade, almost rounded and very slightly 
pointed, is also made in the Austral Isles, in the Kingsmill Islands, and in the 
Marquesas. 

The passage of the paddle into the Sword is well shown amongst the wilder 
* Indians ' of the Brazil. The Tupis still employ the Tacap^, Tangap^, or Ivera- 
pema, which is written * Iwarapema ' by Hans Stade, of Hesse, 

♦ in the charmingly naYve account of his travels and captivity.* 
It was a single piece of the hard, heavy, and gummy wood 
which characterises these hot-damp regions,^ and of different 
shapes with and without handles.' The most characteristic 
implement is a long and rounded shaft with a tabular, oval, 
and slightly-pointed blade : it was slung by a lanyard round 
the neck and hung on either side. With a weapon of this 
♦ kind the cannibal natives slaughtered Pero Femandes 
Sardinha, first Bishop of Bahia, and all his suite ; the 
* martyrs * had been wrecked on the shoals of Dom Rodrigo 
off the mouth of the Coruripe River. The scene is illustrated 
in the * History' of the late M. de Varnhagen (p. 321). 
A similar Brazilian instrument was the Macani, still 
used on the Rio das Amazonas, and there called Tamarana. 
It retains the form of the original paddle, while for offensive 
purposes the pointed oval head is sharpened all round. In 
parts of the Brazil the Macand was a rounded club ; and 
the sharpened paddle used as a Sword was called Pagaye.* 
Fic. 49.-PAGAVA, Sharpened jj^g Peruvian Macani and the Callua — the latter compared 
with a short Turkish blade— were made of chonta-wood 
{Guilielma speciosa and Marttnezia ciliata) which was hard enough to turn copper 
tools.* Mr. W. Bollaert ^ tells us that the * Macand was said by some to be shaped 




» Translated for the Hakluyt Society (1874) by 
Mr. Albert Tootal, of Rio de Janeiro, who wisely 
preserved the plain and simple style of the unlettered 
and superstition-haunted gunner. 

* In Bacon's day {Aphorisms^ book ii.) gummy 
woods were supposed to be rather a Northern growth, 
* more pitchy and resinous than in warm climates, as 
the fir, pine, and the like. * They are as abundant 
near the Equator, where the viscidity preserves them 
from the alternate action of burning suns and torrential 
rains ; moreover, they are harder and heavier than 
the pines and firs of the Temperates. 

■ Historia Gtral do Brazil ^ by F. Adolpho de 
Varnhagen, vol. i. p. 1 12 (Laemmert, Rio de 
Janeiro, 1854). 

* M. Paul Batailbrd (p. 409, Sttr U Mot Pagaie^ 
Soc. Anthrop. de Paris, 1874) is in error, both when 



he calls the people of Paraguay * t'agayas,* or * car- 
riers of lances,' and when he identifies Pagaya (not a 
spear, but a paddle-sword) with the *sagaia or as- 
sagai.' The latter word is of disputed origin, and it 
is meaningless in the tongues of South Africa. Space 
forbids me to touch its history, except superficially. 
*Azagay,* a lance, or rather javelin, appears in Spanish 
history as far back as the days of Ojeda (1509) ; and 
in 1497 ^^ Portuguese of Vasco da Gama's expe- 
dition use the term *azagayas' (p. 12, Roteiro or 
Ruttier, before alluded to). I believe both to be 
derived from the Arabic el-khaztiky a spit— in fact, 
the Italian spiedoy lance. 

* Markham (p. 203, Cieya de Leon) makes * Ma- 
cand ' a Quichua word ; it also belongs to the great 
Tupi-Guarani family. 

• Antiquarian Researches^ quoted by Markham, 
loc, cit. p. 181. 



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THE PADDLE^SWORD. 



43 



like a long Sword, by others like a club.' It was both. The Tapuyas set these 
broad-headed weapons with teeth and pointed bones. 





Fig. 50.— Clubs. 
1-4. Samoa Clubs ; 5, Cross-ribbed Club ; 6. Toothed Club (FijiX 



LI 




Fig. 51.— Paddles. 

1-3. Spear Paddles ; 4, 5. Leaf-shaped ; 6. Austral Isles ; 7. New Ireland ; 8. African, from Gaboon River ; 
9. African, from Coast of Dahome. 

Ojeda, during his famous voyage to Carthagena, found the warlike Caribs 
wielding great Swords of palm wood, and the women * throwing a species of lance 



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44 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



called Azagay' General Pitt-Rivers' collection has a fine flat Club-Sword, five feet 
two inches long, straight and oval pointed, from Endeavour River, Queensland, and 
a smaller article, about three feet, with a longer handle, from Australia. Barrow 
River, Queensland, has supplied him with a half-curved wooden blade five feet 
long. 

The fine Ethnological Museum of Herr Cesar Godeffroy* of Hamburg and 
Samoa, illustrating the ethnology of the Pacific Islands, contains many specimens 

of the knob-stick bevelled on one side of the head 
to an edge and gradually passing into the Sword. On 
the right-hand entrance-wall are, or were, two fine sabres 
(fig* S3) of Eucalyptus-wood, labelled *Schwert von 
Bowen (Queensland).* The Sandwich Islanders, we see, 
still wield the Sword-club with sharp-cutting edges. 




i- 



V' 




Fig. 52. — Samoan Club 
(Gocieffroy Collection). 



Fig. 53. 
Wooden Sabre. 



Fig. 54. Fig. 55.- Knife (Wood), 

IN A LAVi 



Wooden Chopper. 



FROM Vanna Lava. 



like their neighbours of New Ireland. The savage Solomon Archipelago has sup- 
plied a two-handed sabre of light and bright-yellow wood ; its longitudinal midrib 
shows direct derivation from the paddle-club. There is also a lozenge-shaped 
hand-club, which may readily have given a model to metal-workers. It is of hard, 
dark, and polished wood, and the handle is whipped round with coir (Tafel xx. 
p. 97) : the length is seventy cent, by four of maximum breadth. The Swords 
are unfortunately not figured in the catalogue ; but there is a fine wooden knife 



* The Godeffroy Collection has produced a huge 
Catalogue of 687 pages {DU cthnographisch-en- 
thropologische Abtheilung des Museum Godeffroy in 
Hamburgh vol. i. 8vo (L. Fricderichsen u. Co. 1881). 



It was shown to me by Dr. Gracffe, the naturalist 
often mentioned in * South Sea Bubbles^ by the Earl 
and the Doctor.* As a rule the Samoans had clubs 
and spears, but few Swords. 



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THE WOODEN SWORD. 



45 




forty-nine cent, long by six cent, broad, with open handle and highly-worked grip 
(Tafel xxi. p. 135). It comes from Vanna Lava, Banks Group, New Hebrides, 
Polynesia (fig. 55).* 

The wooden Sword extended deep into the Age of Metal. Articles of the kind 
have been brought from New Zealand, which are evident copies of modern 
European weapons. Wilde (p. 452) gives the wooden 
Sword, found five feet deep in Ballykilmunary near 
High Park, county Wicklow, with some bog-butter, 
but he finds no indications of its age. The length is 
twenty inches (fig. 56). Upon the side of the blade, 
and of a piece with it, stands a projection whose pur- 
pose is unknown : it is evidently inconvenient for a 
toy ; but if the relic be a model for a sand-mould, 
the excrescence would have left an aperture by which 
to pour in the metal. This view is supported by the 
shape of the handle, which resembles the grips of 
the single-piece bronze Swords found in different 
parts of Europe. The Dublin Museum also con- 
tains ^ a blade apparently intended for thrusting, and 
labelled * Wooden Sword-shaped Object' The mate- 
rial is oak, blackened by burial in bog-earth : it has 
a mid-rib, a bevelled point, and no appearance of 
being a model (fig. 57). 

Whilst wood was extensively used for Swords, 
the Age of Stone supplied few. The broad and leaf- 
shaped silex-flakes, dignified by the name of Swords, 
are only daggers and long knives. The fracture of flint is uncertain, even when 
freshly quarried.' The workmen would easily chip and flake it to form scrapers. 



Fig. 57.- Wooden 

Rapibr-bladb 
(Dublio Museum). 



* This part of Melanesia has been familiar to 
the home reader by the life, labours, and death of 
Bishop Patterson. 

• Case 21, Petrie, No. 142. 

■ The village of Abu Rawdsh, north of the Pyra- 
mids of Jizah, still works this material in large quan- 
tities ; and its caillouteurs^ or flint-knappers, have 
produced excellent imitations of the so-called prehis- 
toric weapons. I have described the flint finds of 
Egypt in the Joum. Anthrop, Instit, (Feb. 1879), 
and shall have something more to say about them. 
A Mr. R. P. Greg, who writes in the same Jour- 
nal (May 188 1) on the 'Flint Implements of the 
Nile Valley,* is not aware of the fact that I found 
worked flints near the larger petrified forest (Cairo). 
Since that time General Pitt-Rivers made his grand 
discovery of * Chert Implements in stratified Gravel 
in the Nile Valley* (youm, Anthrop, Imt. May 
1882). In March 1881, when visiting the Wady, 



near Elwat El-Dfbdn (Hill of Flies) amongst the 
cliffs of Thebes, he came upon palaeolithic flints, 
flakes worked with bulbs and facets embedded in the 
hardened grit, six and a half to ten feet below the 
surface. In the same strata tombs had been cut, 
flat-topped chambers with quadrangular pillars. The 
fragments of pottery enabled Dr. Birch to pronounce 
these excavations * not later than the eighteenth dy- 
nasty, and perhaps earlier.* The New Empire in 
question was founded by Amosis {Mah-mes^ or Moon- 
child) circ. B.c. 1700; it included the three great 
Tothmes, and lasted about three hundred years, end- 
ing with the heretic Amun-hotep IV., slave of Amun, 
circ, B.C.1400, and Horemhib, theHorus ofManetho. 
The worked flinte may evidently date thousands of 
years before that period. This is a discovery of the 
highest importance, and we may expect, with Mr. 
Campbell, that the « works of men's hands will be 
found abundantly underlying the oldest history in the 



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46 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



axes, spear-heads, and arrow-piles ; but after a certain length, from eight to nine 
inches, the splinters would be heavy, brittle, and unwieldy. Obsidian, like silex, 
would make daggers rather than swords. Such are the stone dirk and cutlass in the 
Kensington Museum. Several European museums preserve these flat, leaf-shaped 
knives of the dark cherty flint found in Egypt. The British Museum contains a 
polished stone knife broken at the handle, which bears upon it in hieroglyphics 
the name of * Ptahmes (Ptah-son), an officer.' There is also an Egyptian dagger, 
of flint from the Hay Collection, still mounted in its original wooden handle 
apparently by a central tang, and with remains of its skin sheath.* The Jews, 






Fic. 58.— Fragments op Stonk Knives prom 
Shetland. 



Fig. 59.— Flint Daggers. 

a. Iberian or Spanish Blade (Christy Collection) ; h. Danish 
Flint Dagger ; c, Danish Flint Hatchet Sabre. 



who borrowed circumcision from the Egyptians, used stone knives {ras iiaxO'lpa^ 
rhs TTBTplvas), Atys, says Ovid, mutilated himself with a sharp stone, — 

Ille etiam saxo corpus laniavit acute ; 

and the Romans sacrificed pigs with flints. Several undated poniards in our 
collections are remarkable : for instance, the English daggers of black and white 
flint, rare in Scotland and unknown in Ireland ; {a) the Iberian or Spanish blade 
in the Christy Collection, five and a half inches long, and found at Gibraltar ; the 
Tizcuco blade of chalcedony, eight inches long (ibid,)] (Jb) the Danish dagger in 
the Copenhagen Museum, thirteen and a half inches long (the rounded handle 
makes it a * marvel of workmanship ') ; and (c) the flint hatchet-sabre of the same 



world, in the hard gravel which underlies the mud 
of the Nile-hollow from Cairo to Assouan. * At any 
rate, this find disposes of the scientific paradox that 
Art has no infancy in Nile-land. The strange fancy 
has been made popular by the Egyptologist, who 
threatens to become as troublesome as the Sanskritist. 



* It is figured (p. 8) by Dr. John Evans {Ancient 
Stone Implements^ &c. ), who offers another * poniard * 
(perhaps a scraper) on p. 292. On p. 308 he notes 
the large thin flat heads called « Pechs' * (Picts* ?) 
knives. ' 



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THE STONE-SWORD, 47 

collection, fifteen and a half inches in length. It is a mystery how the minute 
and delicate ornamentation, the even fluting like ripple marks, on these Danish 
flint-daggers was produced. 

A better substance than flint was found in the compact sandstone and in 
granitic serpentine, so called because that rock resembles a snake's skin. It is easily 
worked, while it is harder than the common serpentine. A dagger or knife found 
beside a stone cist in Perthshire is described as a natural formation of mica- 
schiste. 

The Stone Age produced nothing more remarkable than the Pattu-Pattu or 
Meri of New Zealand, which an arrested development prevented becoming a 
Sword. Its shape, that of an animal's blade-bone, suggests its primitive material ; 
and New Guinea has an almost similar form, with corresponding ornamentation 
in wood. What assimilates it to the Sword is that it is sharp-edged at the top as 
well as at the side. It is used for * prodding * as well as for striking, and the place 
usually chosen for the blow is the head, above the ear, where the skull is weakest. 
Some specimens are of the finest green jade or nephrite,* a refractory stone which 
must have been most troublesome to fashion. 

Wood, however hard and heavy, made a sorry cutting weapon, and stone a 
sorrier Sword ; but the union of the two improved both. Hence we may divide 
wooden Swords into the plain and the toothed blades, the latter — 

Armed with those little hook-teeth in the edge, 
To open in the flesh and shut again. 

An obvious advance would be to furnish the cutting part with the incisors of 
animals and stone-splinters. In Europe these would be agate, chalcedony, and 
rock-crystal ; quartz and quartzite ; flint, chert, Lydian stone, horn-stone, basalt, 
lava, and greenstone (or diorite) ; haematite, chlorite, gabbro (a tough bluish-green 
stone), true jade (nephrite), jadite, and fibrolite, found in Auvergne. Pinna and 
other shells have been extensively used — for instance, by the Andamanese — as 
arrow-heads and adze-blades.* 

Tenerife, and the so-called New World, preferred the easily-cleft green-black 
obsidian,' of which the Ynkas also made their knives. The Polynesian Islands 
show two distinct systems of attachment In the first the fragments, inserted into 
the grooved side, are either tied or made fast by gum or cement In the second 
they are set in a row between two small slats or strips of wood, which, lastly, are 
lashed to the weapon with fibres. The points are ingeniously arranged in the 

' Nephrite is so called because once held a yade^ the Chinese yim, is popularly derived from the 

sovereign cure for kidney disease. Jade is found in Persiany((i^ji/B(the) magic (stone). 

various parts of Europe (Page) ; in the Hartz (or , . j v ji ^- ^v * *u i l n 

„ . . ,, ^ . . f, \ ** ' . ^ , J , ^ * I need hardly notice that the mussel-shell was 

Resm) Mountains : m Corsica (Bnstowe), and about ., . . , ,.,i r •. •.!. 

e u • 1 J n\ J iT> ji X o '. *!. the original spoon, still a favounte with savages. 

Schweinsal and Potsdam (Rudler). Saussunte, the ^ '^ ' ^ 

'Jade of the Alps,' appears about the Lake of Geneva • Humboldt (Pers» Narr. vol, i. p. loo) makes 

and on Monte Rosa. Mr. Dawkins limits Jade the Guanches call obsidian ' tabona *\ most authors 

proper in the Old World to Turkestan and China. apply the word to the Guanche knife of obsidian. 



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48 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



opposite direction, so as to give severe cuts both in drawing and withdrawing. 
The Eskimos secure the teeth by pegs of wood and bone. The Pacho of the South 
Sea Islanders is a club studded on the inner side with shark's teeth made fast 
in the same manner. The Brazilian Tapuyas armed a broad-headed club with 
teeth and bones sharpened at the point* In * Flint Chips * we find that a North 
American tribe used for thrusting a wooden Sword, three feet long, tipped with 
mussel-shell. Throughout Australia the natives provide their spears with sharp pieces 




c 



Fig. 6i.— Sword op Sabrb Form, with Sharks' Tkkth 

^South Pacific). 
From the Meyrick Collection, now in the British Museum. 



fi 



Fig. 6o.— Australian Spsars armed with Flints 
AT Side. 



oe 
cos 



Fig. 6a.— Armed with Obsidian 
(MexicoX 



of obsidian or crystal : of late years they have applied common glass,* a new use for 
waste and broken bottles (fig. 70). The fragments are arranged in a row along one 
side near the point, and are firmly cemented. There is no evidence of this flint- 
setting in Ireland ; but the frequent recurrence of silex implements adapted for 
such purpose has suggested, as in the Iroquois graves, that the wood which held 



» Neuhoff, Travels, &c xiv. 874. 
• Our word * glass * derives from glese {gless, gles- 
saria), applied by the old Germans to amber (Tacit. 



Dc Mor, Germ, cap. 45). Pliny (xxxvii.chap. 1 1) also 
notices glasum (ambei) and Glaesaria Island, by the 
natives called Austcravia. 



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THE SWORD OF WOOD AND STONE. 



49 



them together may have perished. We read in ' Flint Chips ' that the Selden 
Manuscript shows a flake of obsidian mounted in a cleft wooden handle, the latter 
serving as a central support, with a mid-rib running nearly the whole length. The 
sole use of the weapon was for thrusting.* 

The people of Copan (Yucatan) opposed Hernandez de Chaves with slings, 
bows, and * wooden Swords having stone edges.' ^ In the acc6unt of the expedition 
sent out (i 584) by Raleigh to relieve the colony of Virginia, we read of ' flat, edged 
truncheons of wood,* about a yard long. In 
these were inserted points of stag-horn, much 
in the same manner as is now practised, 
except that European lance-heads have taken 
their place. Knives, Swords, and glaives, 
edged with sharks' teeth,^ are found in the 
Marquesas ; in Tahiti, Depeyster's Island, 
Byron's Isles, the Kingsmill Group, Redact 
Island,* the Sandwich Islands, and New 
Guinea. Captain Graah notices a staff edged 
with shark's teeth on the east coast of Green- 
land, and the same is mentioned amongst the 
Eskimos by the late Dr. King.* 

In the tumuli of Western North America, 
Mr. Lewis Morgan, the * historian of the 
Iroquois,' mentions that, when opening the 
* burial mounds ' of the Far West, rows of flint- 
flakes occurred lying side by side in regular 
order ; they had probably been fastened into sticks or swords 
like the Mexican. Hernandez ® describes the * Mahquahuitl ' 
or Aztec war-club as armed on both sides with razor-like teeth 
of * Itzli ' fobsidian), stuck into holes along the edge, and fig. 64.-mexican sword 

^ ' QT THE Fifteenth Cen- 

fastened with a kind of gum. Mr. P. T. Stevens (* Flint Chips,' I""^* ^^ ^^^^ wood, 

° \ i^ » WITH Ten Blades of 

p. 297) says that this Mexican broadsword had six or more i^to'^^he^w^d "cnJu 
teeth on either side of the blade. Herrera, the historian, --7i^*--ty-fi-inchc. 
mentions, in his * Decads,' * Swords made of wood having a 
gutter in the fore part, in which the sharp-edged flints were strongly fixed with 
a sort of bitumen and thread.'^ In 1530, according to contemporary Spanish 



Fig. 63." Wood- and 
Horn-Points. 



* Stephens, Yucatan^ i. 100. 

" The curious and artistic rock inscriptions and 
engravings of the South African Bushmen were traced 
in outline by triangular flint-flakes mounted on sticks 
to act as chisels. The subjects were either simple 
figures ; cows, gnus, and antelopes, a man*s bust and 
a woman carrying a load ; or compositions, as ostrich 
and rider, a jackal chasing a gazelle, or a rhinoceros 
hunting an ostrich. 



» See Chap. I. 

• Voyage Pittoresque autour du Mmde^ par M. 
Louis Choris, Peintre, 1822. 

• Trans. Ethno, Soc, vols. i. and ii. p. 290. 

• Quoted by CoL Lane Fox, Prim. War. i. 25. 

' Prehistoric Man, by Daniel Wilson (voL i. 
pp. 216-17). 



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50 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



historians, Copan was defended by 30,000 warmen, armed with these and other 
weapons,^ especially with fire-hardened spears. The same have been represented 
in the sculptures of Yucatan, which imitated the Aztecs. Lord Kingsborough's 
ruinous work on Mexican antiquities, mostly borrowed from Dupaix, shows a 
similar contrivance {b and c), A Sword having six pieces of obsidian in each 
side of the blade, is to be seen in a museum in Mexico.^ A Mexican Sword of 




Fig 65. — Mahquahuitls. 




Fig. 68.— Mexican Spear-head 
(Fifteenth Century), Black 
Obsidian, with Wooden 
Handle. 



Fig. 66.— Mexican Warrior. 



Fig. 67.— Mexican Sword, 
Iron-Wood, armed with 
Obsidian. (One metre 
eight inches long.) 




Fig. 69.— New Zealand 
Club. 



the fifteenth century is of iron-wood, twenty-five inches long, and armed with 
ten flakes of black obsidian ; and the same is the make of another Mexican 
Sword nearly four feet long.' 

The next step would be to use metal for bone and stone. So the Eskimos of 



* Incidints of Travel in Central America^ &c., 
p. 51 ; by J. Lloyd Stephens. The work is highly 
interesting, because it shows Egypt in Central 
America. Compare the Copan Pyramid with that 
of Sakkarah ; the Cynocephalus head (i. 135) with 
those of Thebes ; the beard, a tuft on the chin ; the 
statue and its headdress (ii. 349); the geese-breeding 
at the palace (U. 316) ; the central cross (ii. 346) which 



denotes the position of the solstices and the equinoxes 
and the winged globe at Ocosingo (ii. 259). In 
Yucatan the Agave Americana took the place of the 
papyrus for paper-making. Indo-China also appears 
in the elephant-trunk ornaments (i. 156). 

* Prim, War, ii. p. 25. 

• The two latter are in Demmin, p. 84. 



\ 



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FIRST USE OF METALS. 



51 



Davis Strait and some of the Greenlandcrs show an advance in art by jagging the 
edge with a row of chips of meteoric ironJ This would lead to providing the 
whole wooden blade with an edge of metal, when the latter was still too rare and 
too expensive for the whole weapon. This economy might easily have overlapped 
not only the Bronze, but the Iron Epoch. 

The tooth-shaped edge was perpetuated in the Middle Ages, as we see by 
serrated and pierced blades of Italian daggers. That it is not yet extinct the 
absurd saw-bayonet of later years proves. 

We now reach the time when Man, no longer contented 
with the baser materials — bone and teeth, horn and wood — 
learned the use of metals, possibly from an accidental fire, 
when 

... a scrap of stone cast on the flame that lit his den 
Gave out the shining ore, and made the Lord of beasts a Lord of men. 



^V- 



T. 



V 




Fig. 70.— Australian Spears, with 
BITS OF Obsidian, Crystal, or 
Glass. 



Fig. 71.— Italian Poison 
Daggers. 



Fig. 72.— Arab Sword, with 
Down-curved Gi'illons and 
Saw Blade. ^Mus^ d'Artil* 
lerie, G. 413, inscription not 
legible.) 



The discovery of ore-smelting and metal -working, following that of fire-feeding, 
would enable Man to apply himself, with notably increased success, to the improve- 
ment of his weapons. But many races here stopped short. The Australian, who 
never invented a bow, contenting himself with the boomerang, could not advance 
beyond the curved and ensiform club before he was visited by the sailors of the 
West. His simplicity in the arts has constituted him, with some anthropologists, 
the living example of the primitive and prehistoric genus homo? The native of 



> A specimen is in the British Museum, Depart- 
ment of Meteorolites. {Prim. IVar. p. 2$.) 

' The distinguished physicist, Prof. Huxley, 
extends, on purely anthropological grounds, the name 
• Australioids * to the Dravidians of India, the Egyp- 



tians, ancient and modem, and the dark-coloured 
races of Southern Europe. I have ventured to oppose 
this theory in Chap. VIII. Mr. Thomas, curious to 
say, would make letters (alphabet, &c.) arise anu}ngst 
the Dravidian quasi-savages. 



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52 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

New Guinea, another focus of arrested civilisation, was found equally ignorant of 
the metal blade. The American aborigines never taught themselves to forge 
either cutting or thrusting Swords ; and they entertained a quasi-superstitious 
horror of the * long knife ' in the hands of the pale-faced conqueror. This is 
apparently the case with all the lower families of mankind, to whom the metal 
Sword is clean unknown. If the history of arms be the history of our kind, and if 
the missile be the favourite weapon of the Savage and the Barbarian, the metal 
Sword eminently characterises the semi-civilised, and the use of gunpowder civi- 
lised, man. 

A chief named Shongo, of Nemuro, in Japan, assured Mr. John Milne * that, * in 
old times, when there were no cutting tools of metal, the people made them of Aji, 
a kind of black stone, or of a hard material called iron-stone. Even now imple- 
ments of this material are employed by men who dwell far in the interior.* 
Here, then, is another instance of the stone and the metal * Ages ' overlapping, even 
where the latter has produced the perfection of steel-work. 

» Tram. Anihrop, Inst. May i88i. Mr. Milne one of which (No. 17, pi. xviii.) is a chopper in the 
brought home some fine specimens of worked stones, shape of the Eg)'ptian flint-knives. 



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53 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE PROTO-CHALCITIC OR COPPER AGE OF WEAPONS. 

I WILL begin by noticing that the present age has settled a question which caused 
much debate, and which puzzled Grote (ii. 142) and a host of others half a century 
ago, before phosphor-bronze was invented. This was the art of hardening (not 
tempering) copper and its alloys. All knew that these metals had been used, in 
cutting the most refractory substances,^ granite, syenite, porphyry, basalt, and 
perhaps diorite,* by the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Trojans, and Peruvians. 
But none knew the process, and some cut the knot by questioning its reality. 
When you cannot explain, deny — is a rule with many scientists. The difficulty 
was removed by the Uchatius-gun,' long reported to be of * steel-bronze,' * but 
simply of common bronze hardened by compression. At the Anthropological 
Congress of Laibach * (July 27-29, 1878), Gundaker Graf Wurmbrandt, of Pettau, 
exhibited sundry castings, two spear-heads and a leaf-shaped blade of bright 
bronze (Dowris copper) adorned with spirals to imitate the old weapons. They 
were so indurated by compression that they cut the common metal. 

Again, at the Anthropological Congress of Salzburg (August 8, 1881), Dr. 
Otto Tischler, of Prussian Konigsberg, repeated the old experiment, showing how 
soft copper and bronze could be hardened by the opus mallei (simple hammering). 
Moreover his metal thus compressed could cut and work the common soft 



' Mr. Heath (who directed the iDdian Iron and 
Steel Company) opined that the tools with which the 
Egyptians engraved hieroglyphics on syenite and 
porphyry were made of Indian steel. The theory is, 
as we shall see, quite uncalled for. 

' For instance, the magnificent life-sized statue of 
Khafra (Cephren or Khabryes) in the Bulak Mu- 
seum, dated B.C. 3700-3300 (Brugsch, History ^ vol. i. 
p. 78). Scarabsei of diorite can be safely bought in 
Egypt, the substance being too hard for cheap imi- 
tation work. Dr. Henry Schliemann constantly 
mentions diorite in his Troy and its Remains (1875); 
for instance, 'wedges' (i.e. axes) large and small, 
(pp. 21, 28, 154) : he speaks of an immense quantity 
of diorite implements (p. 75); of a Priapus of diorite 
twelve inches high (p. 169) ; of * curious little sling 
bullets* (p. 236), and of hammers (p. 285). At 
Mycense he found * two well- polished axes of diorite.* 



But as he also calls it * hard black stone,* I suspect it 
to be basalt, as his * green stone' (TVvy, p. 21) may 
be jade or jadeite. 

' Casting the cannon called after the late General 
Uchatius is still kept a secret ; and I have been un- 
able to see the process at the I. R. Arsenal, Vienna. 

* StaA/'^once ^ siecl (i.e. hardened) bronze. The 
misunderstanding caused some ludicrous errors to the 
English press. 

» I reported to the AthmtEum (August 16, 1879) 
this * recovery ' of the lost Egyptian (and Peruvian) 
secret for tempering copper and bronze, which had 
long been denied by metallurgists. Copper hardened 
by alloy is described in the Archaologia^ by Governor 
Pownall. Mr. Assay-Master Alchorn found in it 
particles of iron, which may, however, have been in 
the ore, and some admixture of zinc, but neither silver 
nor gold. 



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54 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

kinds without the aid of iron or steel. He exhibited two bronze plates in which 
various patterns had been punched by bronze dies. The hammering, rolling, 
beating, and pressing of copper for the purpose of hardening are well known to 
modern, and doubtless were to ancient workmen. The degree of compression 
applied is the feature of the discovery, or rather re-discovery.^ 

It may be doubted whether old Egypt and Peru knew our actual process of 
hydraulic pressure, whose simplest form is the waterfall. But they applied the 
force in its most efficient form. The hardest stones were grooved to make 
obelisks ; the cuts were filled with wedges of kiln-dried wood, generally sycomore ; 
and the latter, when saturated with water, split the stone by their expansion. 
And we can hardly deny that a people who could transport masses weighing 887 
tons * over a broken country, from El-Suwan (Assouan) to Thebes, a distance of 
1 30 miles, would also be capable of effecting mechanical compression to a high 
degree. 

Buffbn (' Hist Nat' article * Cuivre *) believed in the * lost art.' Rossignol ' (pp. 
237-242) has treated of the trempe (Sid rivos fia<l>rj9) que les anciens donnkrent an 
cuivre ; and relates that the chemist Geoffrey, employed by the Comte de Caylus, 
succeeded in hardening copper and in giving it the finest edge ; but the secret was 
not divulged. Mongez, the Academician, held that copper was indurated by 
immersion and by gradual air-cooling, but that la trempe would soften it* In 1862 
David Wilson, following Proclus and Tzetzes, declares the process of hardening 
and tempering copper so as to give it the edge of iron or steel, a * lost art.' 
Markham* supposes that the old Peruvians hardened their copper with tin or 
silica ; and he erroneously believes that tin is scarcely found in that section of 
South America. 

Modem archaeological discovery has suggested that in many parts of the 
world we must intercalate an age of virgin Copper between the so-called Stone 
and Bronze Periods. The first metal, as far as we know, was the stream-gold, 
washed by the Egyptians ; and, as Champollion proved, the hieroglyphic sign for 
Niib (gold) is a bowl with a straining-cloth dripping water.* The fable of glass- 
discovery by the Sidonians on the sands of the Belus,^ a tale which has le channe 

* Of this I shall have more to say in Chap. V. This latter is the common process for softening the 
' This was the weight of the statue of * Sesostris,' metal. 

Ramses II., and his father Pharaoh Seli I.; see • Cieza de Leon (Introd. p. xxviii.) : 'Humboldt 

Chap. IX. The overseer standing upon its knee mentions a cutting instrument found near Cuzco (*M^ 

appears about two-thirds the length of the lower leg City *) which was composed of 0*94 parts of copper 

(Wilkinson, Frontisp. vol. ii.). Pliny treats of co- and 0'o6 of tin. The latter metal is scarcely ever 

lossal statues, xxxiv. 18. found in South America, but I believe there are 

« Les MHaux dans VAntiquiti^ par J. P. Ros- traces of it in parts of Bolivia. In some of the in- 

signol. Paris: Durand, 1863. struments silica was substituted for tin.* The South 

* So Professor F. Max Miiller, Lectures on the American tin is mostly impure ; still it was and can 
Science of Language, asserted, with a carelessness rare be used. 

in so learned a writer (vol. ii. p. 255. London: Long- • Apparently there are two forms of * Niib * (gold), 

mans, 1873), that * the ancients knew a process of the necklace and the washing-bowl. See Chapter 

hardening that pliant metal (copper), most likely by VIII. 
repeated smelting (heating ?) and immersion in water.* » Pliny, xxxvi. 65. 



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THE COPPkR AGE, 55 

des origines^ explains, I have said, how a bit of metalliferous stone, accidentally 
thrown upon the fire in a savage hut, would suggest one of the most progressive 
of the arts. And soon the * featherless biped,' like the Mulciber and the Mammon 
of Milton — 

Ransack'd the centre, and with impious hands 

Rifled the bowels of their mother earth 

For treasures better hid. 

The greater antiquity of copper in Southern Europe was distinctly affirmed, as 
has been seen, by the Ancients. The use of sheeting, or plating, on wood or stone 
was known as long ago as the days of Hesiod (B.C. 880-850 ?) : 

Tots 8' r^v xaXK€a fxev T€vp(€a, ;(aXiccoi 5c t€ oXkoi, 

XaXic<p 8' elpyd^ovTo, /acAas 8' ovk cctkc a-t^poq. — Erga^ 149. 

Copper for armour and arms had they, eke Copper their houses. 
Copper they wrought their works when naught was known of black iron.^ 

Copper sheets^ were also used for flooring, as we learn from the 'xp-Xksos 
ovBos (Copper threshold) of Sophocles (* CEdip. Col.') ; and the treasury-room of 
Delphi, as opposed to the Xdlvos ovSos (stone threshold). So in the Palace of 
Alcinous (* Odys.' vii. 75) the walls and threshold were copper, the pillars and 
lintels were silver, and the doors and dogs of gold. 

The same practice was continued in the Bronze Period, as Dr. Schliemann 
proved when exploring the Thalamos attached to the Treasury of Minyas at 
Orchomenus. Nebuchadnezzar, in the 'Standard Inscription,' declares that he 
plated with copper the folding-doors and the pillars of the Babylon rampart, and 
it is suspected that gold and silver sheeted the fourth and seventh stages of the 
Temple of Belus, tm/gd the Tower of Babel. 

Lucretius ^ is explicit upon the priority of copper — * 

Posterius ferri vis est serisque reperta, 

Sed prior seris erat quam ferri cognitus usus. 

^re solum terrge tractabant, aereque belli 

Miscebant fluctus et volnera vasta ferebant. — V. 1286. 

* Here Elton, like others of his age, mistranslates be seen, uses the same material for his arms, axes, 

Chalcos by • brass * : and adzes. Pausanias follows him, quoting his de- 

^, . ... , J ,. scription of Pisander*s axe and Meriones* arrow; he 

Their mansions, implements, and armour shme , .. a un 1 • *v * 1 e A,i 

_ ^ , , . 1 . vv *v • also cites Achilles' spear in the temple of Athene 

In brass, — dark iron slept withm the mine. ^ «!. i- vi, •. • * j r 1 r t 1 j 

' *^ at Phasehs, with its pomt and ferrule of chalcos, and 

* Engraving on copper-plates is popularly attri- the similar sword of Memnon in the temple of ^Escu- 
buted to Maso Finiguerra, of Florence, in 1460; lapius at Nicomedia. Plutarch tells us that the 
but the Romans engraved maps and plans, and the sword and spear-head of Theseus, disinterred by 
ancient Hindus grants, deeds, &c. on copper-plates. Cymon in Scyros, were of copper. Empedocles, 

» I regret the necessity of troubling the learned who (B.C. 444)— 
reader with these stock quotations, but they are essen- ardentem frigidus iEtnam 

lial to the symmetry and uniformity of the subject. Insiluit 

* Sophocles and Ovid make Medea, and Virgil 

makes Elissa, use a sickle of chalcos. Homer, as will was betrayed by his sandal shoon with chalcos soles. 



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56 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

He justly determines its relation to gold — 

Nam fuit in pretio magis aes, aurumque jacebat, 
Propter inutilitatem, hebeti mucrone retusum.— V. 1272. 

And he ends with the normal sneer at his own age — 

Nunc jacet aes, aunim in summum successit honorem. — V. 1274. 

Virgil, a learned archaeologist, is equally explicit concerning the heroes of the 
^neid and the old Italian tribes — 

-^ratae micant peltae, micat aereus ensis. — JEru vii. 743. 

And similarly Ennius — 

^ratae sonant galeae : sed ne pote quisquam 
Undique nitendo corpus discerpere ferrc* 

Even during her most luxurious days Rome, like Hetruria, retained in memo- 
riam the use of copper (or bronze ?) for the sclepista or sacrificial knife. When 
founding a city they ploughed the pomoerium with a share of aes. The Pontifex 
Maximus and priests of Jupiter used hair-shears of the same material, even as 
the Sabine priests cut their locks with knives of aes. The Ancile or sacred shield 
was also of aes. 

Pope, and other writers of his time, translated copper and bronze by * brass * 
(copper and zinc) ; and in older English * native brass ' was opposed to * yellow 
copper * (cuivre jaune). The same occurs in the A. V. Tubal Cain (the seventh 
in descent from Adam) is *an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron'* 
(Gen. iv. 22). Moses is commanded to * cast five sockets of brass for pillars * ^ 
(Exod. xxvi. 37). Bezaleel and Aholiab, * artists of the tabernacle,' work in brass 
(Exod. xxxi. 4). We read of a * land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills 
thou mayest dig brass * (Deut viii. 9). Job tells us, * Surely there is a vein for the 
silver, and a place for gold where they fine it Iron is taken out of the earth, and 
brass is molten out of the stone.'* Hiram of Tyre was 'cunning to work all 
works in brass* (casting and hammer-wrought), for Solomon's Temple, which 
dates from about two centuries after the time of the Trojan war (B.C. 1 200). In 
Ezra (viii. 27) the text mentions * two vessels of fine copper, precious as gold ; ' 
and the margin reads * yellow or shining brass.' Nor is the old word quite for- 
gotten : we still speak of a * brass gun.' 

* In the Brazen Age,' unphilosophically says Schlegel (* Phil, of Hist.' sect, ii.), 
* crime and disorder reached their height : violence was the characteristic of the 
rude and gigantic Titans. Their arms were of copper^ and their implements and 

> See Macrob. Sat, vi. 3. * hardly have been done from a metal so difficult to 

' Or * a furbisher (whetter, sharpener = acuens) of cast as unalloyed copper. * He greatly undervalues 

every cutting tool of copper and iron.* See Chap. IX. the metallurgy of the Exodist Hebrews, who would 

» 1 can hardly understand why Dr. Evans (p. 5) have borrowed their science from Egypt. 

insists upon these sockets bemg bronze, as they could * Lead is also mentioned, but not tin. 



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THE COPPER AGE, 57 

utensils brass or bronze/ I should generally translate, with Dr. Schliemann and 
Mr. Gladstone, the Homeric ;^aX/c6y, 'copper,* not bronze, chiefly because the 
former is malleable and is bright, two qualities certainly not possessed by the 
alloy. There are alloys which are malleable,^ and others (Dowris copper) which 
shine ; but this is not the case with common bronze, and no poet would note 
its brilliancy as a characteristic. 

Pure copper, however, would generally be used only in lands where tin for 
bronze, and zinc for brass, were unprocurable : isolated specimens may point only 
to a temporary dearth. Thus, the Copper Age must have had distinct areas. 
M. de Pulsky and M. Cartenhac (* Mat^riaux,' &c.) held to a distinct Copper Age 
between the Neolithic and the Bronze. Dr. John Evans considers the fabrication 
due to want of tin or to preference of copper for especial purposes. But the types 
of copper tools, &c., are not transitional. 

The native ore was used in many districts of North America. Celts of various 
shapes from Mhow, Central India, were analysed by Dr. Percy, who found no tin 
in them. Tel Sifr in Southern Babylonia and the island of Thermia in the Greek 
Archipelago supplied similar articles. They are also discovered exceptionally in 
Denmark, Sweden, Austria, and Hungary, France, Italy, and Switzerland. I have 
noticed the use of the unmixed metal in the Crannogs of Styria. It seems to 
have prevailed in Istria : at Reppen-Tabor near Trieste, the supposed field of 
battle with the Romans that decided the fate of the Peninsula (B.C. 178^, was 
found a fine lance-head of pure copper eight and a half inches long : it is now 
in the Museo Civico. The same was the case with Dalmatia ; at Spalato and 
elsewhere I saw axe-heads of unmixed metal. And we have lately obtained 
evidence that old Lusitania, like Ireland,^ was in similar conditions. 

Thus the Age of Copper would be simply provisional in certain localities, 
separating the periods of horn and bone, teeth and wood, from that of alloys ; even 
as the latter led, in the due line of development, to the general adoption of iron 
and steel for Swords and other weapons. But we have no need for dividing the 
epochs with the perverse subtilties of certain naturalists, who use and abuse every 
pretext for creating new species. If there be any sequence, it would be copper, 
bronze, and brass. In most places, however, the ages were synchronous, and some 
races would retain the use of the pure metal, even when tin and zinc lay at their 
doors. 

The Venus (?) of alchemy was called in the Semitic tongues nhs or nhsh, in 
Arab na/utSy and in Hebrew nechosheth (HKTii). The term is popularly derived 
from a triliteral root signifying a snake, the crooked reptile, the serpent that is in 
the sea (Job xvi. 13 ; Is. xxvii. i ; Amos ix. 3, &c.) ; either because the metal is 
poisonous, like the Ophidae, or from its brightness of burnish. Similarly, dhahab 

* A certain Hen Dromir patented in Gennany a • For Irish copper swords see the ArchJohgUy 

process for making malleable bronze. He added yoI. iii. p. 555. They will be exhaustively described 

one per cent, of mercury to the tin, and then mixed in Part H. 
it with the molten copper. 



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58 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

(nnt), gold, was named from its splendour ; and silver, also meaning money 
(argentuniy argent), was kasaf (*iDD), the pale metal, the * white gold ' of Egypt 
Both nechosheth and nahds apply equally to copper, bronze, and brass ; hence we 
must probably read * copper Serpent * for * brazen Serpent,' and * City of Copper * 
for * City of Brass^ 

There is the same ambiguity in the Greek and the Roman terms. The word 
XaXicos {chalcus) is popularly derived from ;^a\rf€«/, *to loose,' because easily 
melted : I should prefer Khal or Khar, * Phoenicia,' whose sons introduced it into 
Greece. The Hellenes dug it in Euboea, where Chalcis-town ' gave rise to 
the * stone' ;^aX/ctTty {chalcitis^ Phny, xxxiv. 2). They also knew the ore as 
f] KVTTpos ; and when the Romans, who annexed Cyprus in B.C. 57, worked the 
mines, their produce, says Josephus, was called x'iXkos icxmpios, Chalcos is 
essentially ambiguous unless qualified by some epithet, as spvdpos (red), fie7ui9 
(black), atOioyfr (Ethiopian colour = ruddy brown), iroKios (iron-grey), and so forth. 
In fact, like ces, it is a generic term for the so-called * base metals ' (iron,* copper, 
tin, lead, and zinc), as opposed to the 'noble metals' — gold and silver, to which 
we should add platinum. 

Worse still, x«^«v* {khalkefs), a copper-smith, was applied to the blacksmith,' 
and even to the chrysochooSy or gold-caster, at the court of Nestor (* Od.' iii. 420, 
432) ; and to ;^a\i^€ta or 'xaKKrilay smithies in general. The Roman (bs^ opposed 
to the cyprium or ces cyprium^ of Pliny (xxxiv. 2, 9), and smaragdus cyprius 
or malachite, is equally misleading unless we render it * base metal.' We know not 
how to translate Varro * when he speaks of the cymbals at the feast of Rhea : 
* Cymbalorum sonitus, ferramentorum jactandorum vi manuum, et ejus rei crepitus 
in colendo agro qui fit, significant quod ferramenta ea ideo erant aere ' (copper, 
bronze, brass .?), * quod antiqui ilium colebant aere antequam ferrum esset inventum.' 
Here he wisely limits the dictum to Greece and Rome. 

According to S. P. Festus {sub voce)y * aerosam appellaverunt antiqui insulam 
Cuprum,^ quod in ei plurimum aeris nascitur.' We now derive the Sacred Island 

* So Chalcis in Mela (ii. 7), now Egripos (Negro- cyprium^ the adjective, which expressed only locality ; 
ponte). and lastly cuprum. The third is first used by Spar- 

* The confusion with iron appears in the Sans- tianus in the biography of Caracalla (No. 5), Cancdli 
krit(Pali?) ayas \ Latin as for ahes (as we find in ex are vel cupro [Aoqx% q{ as ox co'^^i), ^liusSpar- 
aheneus); the Persian dAau ( 6^) ; the Gothic ais, tianus dates from the days of Diocletian and Constan- 
or aiz ; the High German ^r%rhich is the Assyrian *«"« (Smith, sud voc.). When Pliny writes m Cypro 
eru and the Akkadian hurud\ and the EngUsh iron, prima fuU oris htventio, he leaves it doubtful if ^j be 
J. Grimm {Du Natun»dlker) connects "Apijf with as, copper or bronze ; but we should prefer the former. 
That as and aru metalla in Pliny mean copper, we So he makes the best 'Missy' (naUve yellow copperas) 
learn from his talc of Telephus (xxv. 19), which, by Proceed from the Cyprus manufactories (xxxiii., iv. 25. 
the by, is told by Camoens (Sonnet Ixix.) in a very ^"^ '^''*»v-» "»• 30- The word wtnT or wwj/ is still used 
different way. ^^ India for a vitriolic powder to stain the teeth. 

« X«^«^«»' «* ««i •'•^ <ri87j^<J«ii' rXf7ov, icol Cypros, the wife of Agrippa, was possibly named 

XoXk^oj ToJrf Thv ffiSvpoy ipyaio,ihovt. Jul. Pollux, ^''o™ Kafar-the henna plant : the Cyprus of Pliny 

OnomasHcm, viii. c. 10. ('"»• 50 is also the Laivsonia incrmis, 

* The full term was as cypnum, which Pliny * ^rag, tom. i. p. 226. Edit. Bipont. 
apparently applies to the finer kind ; then it became • The island will be further noticed in Chap. VIII. 



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COPPER IN CYPRUS. 59 

from ' Guib * (pine-tree), * er ' (great), and * is ' (island) ; * Guiberis,' alluding to its 
staple growth. General Palma (di Cesnola *) prefers the Semitic * kopher ' {LaW' 
sonia inermis\ the henna-shrub, even as Rhodes took its name from the rose or 
malvacea ; and he finds in Stephanus Byzantinus ' that the plant was then 
abundant. The diggings are alluded to by all the great geographers of antiquity, 
Aristotle (*de Anim.'v. 17^), Dioscorides (v. 89), Strabo (xvi. 6), and Pliny (xii. 60, 
xxxiv. 20). In Ezekiel (xxvii. 13) the trade in copper vessels is attributed to 
Javan (Ionia), Tubal, and Meshech ; the latter are the Moschi of Herodotus 
(vii. J^\ a Caucasian people who may have originated the * Moscows ' or Russians. 
Agapenor and his Arcadians were credited with having introduced copper-mining 
into Neo-Paphos ; yet there is no doubt that the Phoenicians had worked metal 
there before the Greek colonisation. Menelaus (* Od.* iv. 83-4) visits Cyprus for 
copper; and Athene-Mentor fetches it, as well as 'shining iron' (steel?), from 
Tem&e (Tf/teV^, * Od.' i. 1 54).* These diggings, together with those of Hamath 
(Amathus, Palaeo-Limassol), Soli, Curium, and Crommyon, are mentioned by Palma, 
who also alludes to an * unlimited wealth of copper.' Yet, despite this and the 
general assertion that copper was the most important production of Cyprus, we 
have found only the poorest mines at Soli in the Mesaoria-plain, the counterslope 
of the Pedia. The island, it is true, has been wasted and spoiled by three cen- 
turies of the * unspeakable Turk.* But the researches of late travellers and col- 
lectors — and these have been exhaustive since the British occupation — have 
hitherto failed to find extensive traces of mining. The rarity, together with the 
poverty of the matrix, would suggest the following explanation. 

Cyprus was probably not so much a centre of production as a dep6t of trade 
which collected the contributions of adjacent places — e.g. the isle of Siphanos 
(Sifanto), where copper has been found with iron and lead. Such was the general 
history of islands and archipelagos outlying barbarous and dangerous coasts on 
the direct lines of commerce, various sections of the world's great mercantile 
zone and highway of transit and traffic. The Cassiterides, also, served as store- 
houses for the stream-tin and the chalcopyrite (copper pyrites) of Cornwall and of 
Devonshire, whilst they enjoyed the fame of producing it. During the Middle 
Ages, Hormuz or Ormuz (Armuza), in the Persian Gulf, served, and Zanzibar 
still serves, as a centre of import, export, and exchange, as a magazine and as a 
shipping station for its mainland. 

One of the ores which occurs in the greatest number of places * and in the 

* Cyprusy &c., by General Louis Palma (di Ces- stone callefl chalcitis (copper-smelters) bum it for 
nola). London : Murray, 1877. The author ex- many days in fire, a winged creature, something 
cavated from 1S66 to 1876, and opened some 15,000 larger than a great fly, is seen walking and leaping in 
tombs, mostly Phoenician. the fire. ' A brother of the salamander I 

« Quoted in the Kypros of W. H. Engel (vol. i. * Some commentators (Strabo, vi. i) confound 

p. 14). The two volumes are a mine of information ; this place with Ausonian Temdsa, or Tempsa, in the 

much of it now antiquated, but useful to later students land of the Brutii, with Tem^ of Cyprus, 

who have less leisure to accumulate learning. » Herodotus (iiu 23) tells us that, copper being 

* * In Cyprus, where the manufacturers of the of all metals the most scarce and valuable in i^thiopia, 



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6o THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

largest quantities ; having a specific gravity ranging from 8*830 to 8958 ; harder 
and more elastic than silver ; the most tenacious of metals after iron and platinum ; 
malleable when cold as well as when hot, so as not to require the furnace ; melting 
at a temperature between the fusion points of silver and gold (1196** F.) ; and 
readily cast in sand-beds and moulds, Copper must have been used in the earliest 
ages, and has continued to our day, when the art of smelting it — at Swansea, for 
instance, in South Wales — is perhaps more advanced than that of any other ore. 
When the stone-and-bone weaponed peoples began their rude metallurgy, they 
would retain, with similar habits of thought, the same principles of design. The old 
Celtis, Celt, or chisel of serpentine or silex, would be copied in the newly- introduced 
and gradually-adopted weapon-tool of metal ; and the transition would be so 
gradual that we trace without difficulty the process of development. The first 
metal blade was probably a dagger of copper, preserving the older shape of wood, 
horn, and stone : possibly it resembled the copper knife found at Memphis in 
1 85 1 by Hekekyan Bey; and this afterwards would grow to a Sword. Wood, 
stone, copper, and bronze, iron and steel, must long have been used simultaneously, 
slowly making way for one another, as the musket took the place of the matchlock, 
the rifle of the musket. 

According to Pliny (vii. 57), * Aristotle supposes that Scythes, the Lydian, was 
the first to fuse and temper copper ; while Theophrastus,^ in Aristotle*s day, ascribes 
the art to Delas, the Phrygian. Some give the origin to the Chalybes, others to 
the Cyclopes.' Achilles, the pupil of Chiron (ibid. v. 20), is represented in pictures 
as scraping the cerugo ^ or verdigris off a spear into the wound of Telephus, the 
effect of which diacetate would soon be followed by the discovery of blue-stone 
(sulphate of copper, blue copperas) or blue vitriol, still a favourite in the East 
Pausanias (*^liaca') further informs us that Spanish copper, or copper from 
Tartessus, was the first used. The classics agree that Cadmus (not * the foreigner,* 
but the * old man,' El-Kadim^ or the * Eastern man,' El-Kadmi) introduced metal- 
lurgy into Greece. 

We have ample evidence of extensive working and use of copper, called * Khomet,' 
by the peoples of the Nile Valley. The ore occurs in the Wady Hammdmdt, the 
Egyptian Desert, and the so-called * Sinaitic ' Peninsula. As the Pyramids are the 
oldest of buildings, so the works in Wady Magharah (Valley of Caves) are perhaps 
the most ancient mines in the world.' They were first opened (circ. B.C. 3700- 

prisoners were there bound with golden fetters. As « Ample infonnation is given by Brugsch {Egypt 

will be seen, copper has lately been found in Abys- under the Pharaohs^ vol. i. p. 64) of Senoferu ; of 

sinia. the valiant Khufu or Suphis (Cheops) ; of the Pharaoh 

* An awful list of his works is given in Diogenes Sahura, or Sephris ; of Menkauhor (Mencheres) and 

Laertius. Tatkara (Fifth Dynasty) ; of the bas-reliefs at Wady 

« Thb aerugo was artificially made by the Ancients Magharah dating from King Pepi (Sixth Dynasty) ; 

with acetic acid, converting copper to a green salt of Thutmes III. or the Great, and his sister Hashop 

(Beckmann, sub v, * Verdigris or Spanish Green '). (Eighteenth Dynasty before B.C 1 600), one of whose 

The green rust of the carbonate of copper is still expeditions produced among other things ninety-seven 

erroneously termed verdigris (acetate of copper). Swords (Brugsch, i. 327), and who mentions 'gilt 



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EGYPTIAN COPPER MINES. 



6i 



3600) by the eighth king of the Third Dynasty, the Sephouris of Manetho, the 
Senoferu (* he that makes gf)od ') of the inscriptions, who lies buried in the pyramid 
of Mi-tum (Maydiim).^ A rock-tablet of this Pharaoh, the * great god, the subduer. 




Fig. 73.— Sephuris at Wady Magharah (oldest Rock Tablets). Third Dynasty. 




Fig. 74.— Soris and the Canaanitbs at Wadv Magharah (oldest Rock Tablets). Fourth Dynasty. 

conqueror of countries,' shows him holding a foreigner by the hair and smiting the 
captive with a mace. Above his head are car\'ed a graver (pick ?) and a mallet. 
Soris, first Pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, * Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, ever 

copper * ; of Amon-holep III., also * the Great * * Pottery has lately been found embedded in the 

(Eighteenth Dynasty, about B.C. 1500) ; and of other bricks of the Maydiim Pyramid. 
Pharaohs who worked these diggings. 



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62 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



living/ also strikes down an enemy and shows the same symbols. They again 
appear in the tablet of Souphis, the Shufu or Khufu ofHhe Tables of Abydos and 
Sakkara,* and the Cheops of the Great Pyramid, whilst they are wanting in that of 
his brother Nu-Shufu (Souphis II.) or Khafra (Cephren) of the Pyramid. 

The diggings were not 
abandoned till the days 
of Amenemhat, of the 
Twelfth Dynasty, when the 
labourers were removed 
to Sardbit-el-Khddim, the 

* Men-hirs ' (not heights) of 
the Servant in the Wady 
Nasb or Valley of Sacri- 
ficial Stone. Here gangs 
of miners, guarded by a 
strong force, extracted 
(as the slag-heaps show) 
Mafka or Mefka ^ (copper ? 
malachite ? ^ turquoise } ), 

* black metal ' (copper), 
' green stones ' ( mala- 
chite ?), manganese, and 
iron. Supt and Athor or 
Hathor (Venus), the Isis of 
pure light, who presided 
over the Mafka-land, and 
who was the 'goddess of 
copper,' are mentioned in a 
tablet Other hieroglyphs 
contain the names and 
titles of the rulers, and 
fragments of vases bear 

the name of Mene-Pthah,* one of the supposed Pharaohs of the Exodus. The 
* hands ' left their marks by graffiti or scribblings, and there are extensive remains 
of slave-quarters, of deep cuts, and of rock-sunk moulds for running the metal 




Fig. 75.— Tablet or Suphis and Nu-Suphis at Wady Magharah. 
(Fourth Dynasty.) 



* The Souphis I. of Manetho is the second king 
of the Fourth Djmasty following Soris. Souphis II. is 
the Khafra of the Tables and the Cephren of the 
Greeks. 

* The hieroglyphic is of several forms ; 



^^ 



ooo 



may serve as a specimen. 



« • Malachite * is the Greek molochotisy from the 
mohokhe, or marsh-mallow ; whence the Arabic 
mulukhlyeh. In Poland, malachite and turquoise 
preside over the month of December. 

* Meaning the Beloved of Ptah, the Opener, the 
Artificer God. The word is found in the Arabic yo/A. 
It is a better derivation for Hephasius than * Vaish- 
ravana * ; but Sanskrit is so copious that any given 
word can be derived from it 



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COPPER IN AFRICA AND ASIA, 63 

into ingots. Sardbit-el-Khddim continued working until Ramses IV. (Twentieth 
Dynasty), the last royal name there found : his date in round numbers would be 
B.C. 1 1 50. Agatharchides (B.C. 100) reports that chisels of chalcos (XarofilBss xo^fcal) 
were found buried in the ancient gold mines of Egypt, and hence he deduces 
that the use of iron was unknown. 

From Kemi or Xrjfiia, * black-earth land,' alias Egypt, the art of metallurgy 
doubtless extended southwards into the heart of Africa. Hence travellers wonder 
when they see admirable and artistic blacksmiths amongst races whose sole idea of 
a house is a round hut of wattle and dab. The only coppers in South Africa with 
which I am familiar are those of Katanga in the Cazembe's country,* where the Por- 
tuguese have long traded. Captain Cameron * was shown a calabash full of nuggets 
found when clearing a water-hole. In Uguhha he procured a * Handa ' from Urua, 
a Saint Andrew's cross with central ribs to the arms, measuring diagonally fifteen to 
sixteen inches by two inches wide and half an inch thick : the weight was two 
and a half to three pounds. The people prefer this ' red copper ' to the * white 
copper,' as they call gold. In the Pantheon of Yoruban Abeokuta, *Ogun,' 
the local Vulcan and Wayland Smith, god of metal-workers and armourers, is 
symbolised by a dwarf spear of copper or iron, and human sacrifices are, or were, 
made to it. Barth (vol. iii.) notes the copper (ja-n-Karfi) in El-Hofrah (*the 
Diggings ') of Waday, south of Dar-For ; and in the Kano, the Runga, and the Bute 
countries. Copper wire is worn by the women of the hill-lands of Gurma, but it 
is supposed to be brought from Ashanti (?). Africa, however, is as yet unexplored 
as regards its mineral wealth, and we are only beginning to work our old-world 
California — the Gold Coast. Farther south the highly-important copper-mines of 
Pemba, now Bemba, and other parts of the inner Congo and Bcnguella regions, 
were discovered by the Capitao-Mor, Balthazar Rebello de AragSo, in 1621-23.' 
Still more to the south, Namaqua-land supplies chalcitic ores, a native carbonate, 
reduced with cow-chips. 

In Asia mines were worked by the ancient Assyrians for copper as well as lead 
and iron, and the former was applied to their weapons, tools, and ornaments.* 
The Kurds and Chaldaeans still extract from the Tiyari heights about Lizan and 
the valley of Berwari various minerals — copper, lead, and iron ; silver, and perhaps 
gold. Upon the Steppes of Tartary, and in the wildest parts of Siberia, the remains 
of old copper-furnaces, small and of rude construction, are met with. The Digaru 
Mishmfs of Assam have copper-headed arrows. 

The Chinese declare that in olden times men used the metal for arms, which in 
the days of the Thsin (B.C. 300) began to be made of iron. Sir John Davis (i. 230) 

* O Mtuiia CatembCy by Monteiro and Gamitto, * R.N., C.B., &c., Across Africa^ vol. L pp. 134, 

describes the copper works in South-East Africa long 319 ; and vol. ii. pp. 149, 329. 
known to the natives. I am told by Mr, Hooker, " Viagens dos Portugtuzes^ ColecfcUt de Docu- 

C.E., that he has lately seen {p<ue Herodotus) mmtos^ &c. 

'magnificent specimens of native copper sent from * Layard's Nincz'eh, I 224, ii. 415; 6th edit. 

Ab3rssinia.* 1854. 



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64 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

confirms the fact that the Chinese Sword and backsword, both wretched weapons, 
were originally of copper, long ago changed to iron. Dr. Pfizmaier tells us that 
about B.C. 475 the King of U sent a steel blade to his minister, U-tse-tsui, 
wherewith to behead himself. According to Pliny, the Seres exported iron to 
Europe together with their tissues and their skins. The Chinese distinguish 
between Thse-thung (purple copper) and Thing-sung (g^een copper) or bronze. 
They prefer the * Tze-Iae,* or natural ore, gathered in the torrent-beds of Kwei- 
chow and Yun-nan, and the latter exclusively produces the famous Pe-tung,* or 
white copper, which takes a fine polish like silver. They made copper the base of 
their coinage as well as their weapons. Amongst their many charms and talismans 
are the * money-swords,* a number of ancient copper coins pierced with a square 
central hole, and connected by a metal bar shaped like a cross-hilted Sword. 
These are suspended over the testerns of beds and sleeping-couches, that the 
guardianship of the kings in whose reigns the money was issued may keep away 
ghosts and spirits. 

The Japanese copper* is of the finest quality, and is used as a standard of 
comparison. The superiority of the metal, which contains a percentage of gold, 
enabled the self-taught native workmen to produce those castings which are the ad- 
miration and the despair of the European artist. The copper delivered at Nagasaki 
and Kwashi is from Beshki, Akita, and Nambu ; other places produce the more 
ordinary kinds. The rich red surface is due to a thin and tenaciously adhering film 
of dioxide : this has been imitated in England. The famous Satzuma copper, held 
to be the best in the world, was prepared under Government officials, none being 
sold privately. The ore was roasted in kilns for ten to twenty days, smelted in 
large furnaces with charcoal, and cast in water to make the well-known Japanese 
ingots. These were bars measuring about half an inch on the side, by seven to 
nine inches in length, and weighing some ten taels, nearly equal to one pound. 
They were packed in boxes each weighing a picul (=125 to 133^ lbs. avoir.), 
about the load of a man. The price of course greatly varied. The trade was at 
first wholly in the hands of the Hollanders, who made a good thing of their 
monopoly. There was also an old traffic in Japanese copper on the eastern coast 
of India, especially Coromandel. The opening of the empire has caused revolu- 
tionary changes. 

Copper was abundantly produced in Europe, and the pure metal was used 
throughout the continent with the exception of Scandinavia, where specimens are 
exceedingly rare. The iron age of Denmark begins with the Christian era, and 
was preceded only by bronze and stone. We know nothing of the discovery of 
copper in Ireland. It is supposed in legend to have been introduced by the 
Fir-bolgs (bag-men, Belgse i*), or by the Tuatha (gens) de Danaan (the Danes ?). 

' Hence our /flr^/iw^, or German silver, of China, ' The Chinese Repository gives a hundred illus- 

an alloy of copper (50 per cent.), nickel, and zinc trations of the implements in use by the Chinese and 
(25 per cent. each). the Japanese. 



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THE COPPER AGE, 65 

These oft-quoted races, known to us only by name, have been affiliated with a host 
of continentals, even with the Greeks.* It would be mere guess-work to consider 
the Irish style of treating the ores— by spalling or breaking the stone, by wasting, 
fluxing, or smelting. We have, however, many specimens which explain the 
casting. The metal was called by the natives Uma or Umha, a Keltic word ; 
also Dearg Umha, red copper, opposed to Ban ' Umha (white copper) or tin ; and 
this term afterwards became * stan,' evidently from stannum (Gall. Estain). There are 
still traditions of copper mines having existed at an early period ; and, among the 
wonders related by Nonnius (Archaeol. Soc. Ireland), we find Loch Lein, now 
Killarney, surrounded by four circles of copper, tin, lead, and iron. Of late years 
« miners* hammers,' the native name for stone pounders, have been dug up in the 
neighbourhood of that lake, in Northern Antrim, at an ancient mine in Ballycastle, 
and in sundry parts of Southern Ireland.' The metal occurs in small quantities at 
Bonmahon (Waterford) ; copper and cobalt at Mucross, and grey copper ore in 
Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, and Galway. In 1855 some 1157 tons were shipped to 
Swansea, 

The Greenlanders and Eskimos cut and hammer their pure native copper, 
without smelting, into nails, arrow-piles, and other tools and weapons. Mackenzie 
(second voyage) tells us that pure copper was common among the tribes on the 
borders of the Arctic Sea, whose arrow-heads and spear-heads were cold-wrought 
with the hammer. Columbus (fourth voyage), before touching the mainland of 
Honduras, saw at Guanaga Island a canoe from Yucatan * laden with goods, amongst 
which he specifies * copper hatchets, and other elaborate articles, cast and soldered ; 
forges, and crucibles.' * At Hayti the great Admiral (first expedition) had mentioned 
masses of native copper weighing six arrobas (quarters).^ When the Spaniards 
first entered the province of Tupan they mistook the bright copper axes for gold 
of low touch, and bought with beads some six hundred in two days : ^ Bernal Dias 
describes these articles as being very highly polished, with the handle curiously 
carved, as if to serve equally for an ornament and for the field of battle. 

In North America there are two great copper regions which supplied the whole 
continent^ — Lake Superior and the lower Rio Grande. The former shows the 

* /Vroryiwr (viV, aman), and bolg{Bolgi^ Belgce)^ names, which had become bye- words, almost ridicu- 

a belly, bag, budget, or quiver. They occupied lous to use. 

Southern Britain, and formed the third immigrant • -^<f#» (our corrupted *bawn,* as in 'Molly Bawn*), 
colony preceding the • Milesians,' sons of Milidh or white, is the Latin canm. It is also a noun sub- 
Miledh (Senchus Mor), evidently MiUs^ the soldier. stantive, meaning * copper.* 
He had two sons, Emer and Airem, from whom the * Wilde, CcUahgue^ pp. 58, 356. 
Irish race is descended. Emer, says Prof. Rhys, * Meaning Tectetan =■ * I don't know.* So the 
may represent the Ivemii or pre-Celtic population AVadri on an old English chart of the Euphrates, 
mentioned by Ptolemy; and Airem, which means *a * Seltci Letters of Columbus ^ &c. p. 201. Trans- 
farmer,* the Iranian race which introduced agricul- lated by R. H. Major, Hakluyt Society, 1870. 
ture amongst a horde of hunters. The fourth colony • Humboldt, Travels^ iii. 194. 
was the Tuatha (people, e.g. Tuatha-Eireann = people * Commentaries of the Yncas, Translated by 
of Erin), named from Danair, a stranger, foreigner, Clements R. Markham, C.B. Hakluyt Society, 
and properly a Dane. We have lately been shown 1871. 
how much true history may be obtained from these • Daniel \Vilson*8 Prehistoric Afan^ yol. i. chap. 



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66 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

first transitional steps from stone to metal. The ore occurs in the igneous and 
trappean rocks that wall in the vast fresh-water sea, and is found in solid blocks : 
one, fifty feet long, six feet deep, and six feet in average thickness, was esti- 
mated to weigh eighty tons. At Copper Harbour, Kawunam Point, a single vein 
yielded forty thousand pounds. The largest mass in the Minnesota Mine (Feb. 
1857) occupied Mr. Petherick and forty men for twelve months : it was forty-five 
feet long, thirty-two feet broad (max.), and eight feet thick ; containing over 
forty per cent ore, and weighing four hundred and twenty to five hundred tons. 
Malleable and ductile, representing an average of 310 per cent, native silver, and 
with a specific gravity of 878 to 896, it required no crucible but Nature's ; 
it wanted only beating into shape, and it needed nothing of the skilled labour 
necessary for the ores of Cornwall and Devon, which contributed so largely to the 
wealth of Tyre. The workings are supposed to belong to the race conveniently 
called * Mound-builders,' and to date from our second century, when the Damno- 
nians of Cornwall were in a similar state of civilisation. * Cliff Mine ' supplied fine 
specimens of weapons and tools, arrow-piles and spear-heads, knives and three- 
sided blades like the old bayonet. The socket was formed by hammering flat 
the lower end, and by turning it over partially (without overlapping) at each side, 
so as to make a flange. Professor James D. Butler (* Prehistoric Wisconsin ') 
facsimiles twenty-four copper implements. The * Indians ' called the metal Misko- 
pewalik (red iron), opposed to black iron. As is also proved by the Brockville 
relics, the people had the art of hardening copper. 

The mines of the lower Rio Grande supplied Mexico with materials for arms 
and tools. According to Captain R. H. Bonnycastle,* the metal was found in 
New Mexico and in the volcanic rocks of Mechoacan (Valladolid, New Spain). 
Mexico, like Peru, used the crucible and added bronze to copper. The metals 
were under the god Quetzalcoatl, an Aztec Tubal Cain-ben-Lamech. 

Another great centre of the Copper Age was the land * where men got gold as 
they do iron out of Biscay.* The Peruvian army, a host of three hundred thousand 
levied from a total population of twenty millions, was armed with bows and arrows, 
clubs, pikes, javelins, war-axes (of stone atid copper), and the paddle-sword ;* while 

viii.; The Mdallurgic Aris^ Copper (pp. 231-79). has explained how this mighty organisation crumbled 

Prof. Brush, of Yale College, calculated that 6,cxxj to pieces at the touch of a few European adventurers. 

tons were yielded in 1858. I have read with interest the able work of M. 

1 T^ ir o^ • r >♦ • P /nui j i i.- Viccnte F. Lopez, Les Races Aryennes du Pt^rou 

» R.E., Spanish America, &c. (Philadelphia: ,^ . -, 101. •••.» .i- 

At . o 11 o V (Pans: Franck, 1871): he denves the word from 

Abraham Small, 1819), p. 49- n- u .u c \ v 1 j •/= j * /- . tt 

7/f r T7 Pirhua, the first Ynka deified to a Creator. He 

' It was divided, like the Greek and Roman, into adopts (p. 17) against Garcilasso de la Vega, who 

centuries {pachacas\ chiliarchies {hurangos)^ and gave the Ynkarial Empire 400 years, the opinions of 

inspectorships (tokrikrok)^ generally under royalties. the learned Dr. Fernando Mont^sinos el Visitador, of 

The o^anisation was due to the Ynka Inti-Kapak the later sixteenth century, who is set aside by 

(the Great), B.C. 1 500-1600. There was a large lA^sVhzm, Narratives 0/ ihe >«<-aj (Hakluyt, 1873). 

fleet (• magna colcharum classis ') of ships not smaller Montesinos derives the Peruvians from Armenia five 

than the contemporary European, *navigiis velifi- centuries after * the Flood,* and assigns 4,000 years 

cantur nihili vestris minoribus,* says P. Martyr with loi emperors to the dynasty; it begins with 

{Decad, ii. lib. 3). Neither traveller nor historian Manko Kapak, son of Pirhua Manko; and Sinchi 



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COPPER IN AMERICA. 



67 



the people of Anahuac (Mexico) had bows and spears, clubs and axes, knives and 
Swords one-handed and two-handed, the Mahquahuitl set with obsidian teeth. In 
the former country the pre-Ynkarial Aymaras, who dug for gold and silver, copper and 
tin, and who employed alloys, almost ignored for their * Ayri * (cutting implements) 
the use of iron and steel, which they called Quella (Khellay). The Andes range is 
popularly derived from the Quichua word Anta* (copper) : the native ore occurred in 
the parts above the cultivation-line, and it abounded in the cupriferous sandstones 
of Bolivian Corocoro. The Huaunanchuco country (Rivero and Tschudi, p. 203),* 
conquered by the ninth Ynka, produced a fine collection of stone and copper axes, 
chisels, pins, and tweezers. Bias Valera, one of the earliest writers, still often 
quoted, tells us that * Anta ' served in place of iron, and that the people worked it 
more than other ores, preferring it to gold {Khori) and silver.' Of it were made 
their knives, carpenters* tools, women's dress-pins (7V///>j), polished mirrors, and 

* all their rakes and hammers.* Garcilasso de la Vega adds : * pikes, clubs, halberts, 
and pole-axes,* made of silver, copper, and some of gold, the " tears of the sun,** 
having sharp points, and some hardened by the fire * ; also carpenters* axes ; 
adzes and hatchets ; bill-hooks of copper, and blow-pipes of the same metal about 
a yard long applied to earthen or clay pots which they carried from place to place. 
A nugget or loose pebble acted as bell-clapper, and copper statuettes were coated 
or plated with precious metals. The * Royal Commentaries of the Yncas * tells us 

Roka (No. xcv. of Mont^inos) is Garcilasso*s official 
founder (p. 25). 

But I cannot follow M. Lopez in his theories of 

* Aryanism * (2^nd and Sanskrit) or * Turanianism ' 
(Chinese and Tartar). The Quichua wants the 
peculiar Hindu cerebrals (which linger in English), 
and lacks the M,* so common in * Indo-European* 
speech ; • Lima, ' for instance, should be * Rlma. ' It 
has no dual, and no distinction between masculine 
and feminine. But with the licence which M. Lopez 
allows himself, any language might be deiived from 
any other. For instance, chinka from sinha^ 'the 
lion* (p. 138); hakchikis = hashisht 'intoxicating herb*; 
kekenti^ * humming-bird,* from kvan^ 'to hum*; hua- 
hua^ *son,* from Ji/, *to engender,* sunusy &c., 
(when in Egypt we have j«); and mama^ •mother,* 
from mata^ h^r^vPf fnaler^ when we have mut and 
muU in Nile-land. For marat *to kill,* * death,' the 
old Coptic preserves mer, nuran, * to die * ; and for 
mayUf * water,* mu, 

I thus prefer the monosyllabic Egyptian for 
Quichua roots, noting the two forms of pronoun, 
isolated (nyoka - 1 « anuk) and affixed {/tua/tua-/, * my 
son;* kuakua-kiy *thy son;* kuakua-u^ *his son*). 
The heliolatry of the Andes was that of the Nile 
Valley ; Kon is the Egyptian Tum^ • the setting sun.* 
The god Papacha wears on his head the scarabaeus of 
Ptah, or Creative Might. The pyramids and mega- 
lithic buildings are also Nilotic. The pottery shows 
three several styles, Egyptian, Etruscan, and Pelasgic. 
The population was divided into the four Egyptian 



castes (p. 396), priests (mankos and amau/as), soldiers 
{a ucasy aukas), peasants {uyssus)^ and shepherds or 
nomads {ckukis). According to Cieza de Leon (p. 197) 
they thought more of the building and adorning of 
their tombs than of their houses ; their mummies 
were protected by little idols, and ihe corpse car- 
ried the ferryman's fee. The pyramid of Copan 
(Yucatan), 122 feet high, with its 6-feet steps, is 
that of Sakkarah. The Yucatan beard in statues 
is Pharaohic The elephant-trunk ornaments 
(Stephens, ii. 156) are Indo-Chinese. The geese- 
breeding (ii. 179) is Egyptian. See also the Toltec 
legend of the House of Israel (ii. 172). 

* The * lovely valley, Andahualas,* is from Anta 
and Huaylla, pasture - i.e. * copper-coloured meadow.* 
Anta in Cieza de Leon appears to be copper, whereas 
other writers make it bronze. 

' Peruvian AntiquiiieSy by Don M. E. de Rivero 
and J. J. von Tschudi. 

* They abandoned the native silver mines when 
the ore became too hard, and they smelted it in small 
portable stoves. They knew also the chemical com- 
binations, sulphate, antimonial, and others ; and they 
worked quicksilver. They had mines of Quella 
(Khellay, or iron), but they found difficulty in ex- 
tracting it. Besides smelting, they could use the 
tacana (hammer), cast in moulds, inlay, and solder. 

* Ewbank, of whom more presently, sketches a 
well -cast axe (p. 455). He translates anta by bronze 
(p. 455). 



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68 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

that copper served in place of iron for making weapons of war : the people valued 
it highly because more useful than gold and silver ; the demand was greater than 
for any other metal, and it paid tribute (vol. i. pp. 25, 43, 48). We find notices of 
copper hammers, bellows-nozzles, adzes, axes, and bill-hooks (i. p. 102). Cieza de 
Leon (chap. Ixiii.) tells us that the Peruvians placed a piece of gold, silver, or copper 
in the corpse's mouth. He mentions vases of copper and of stone (chap, civ.), 
and small furnaces of clay where they laid the charcoal and blew the fire with 
thin canes instead of bellows (ibid.). The Introduction (p. Hi) notes the Peruvian 
use of copper-trowels for smoothing and polishing walls, and a * terrible weapon of 
copper in the shape of a star.* According to Rivero and Tschudi (chap, ix.) the 
Peruvians could not work copper as well as gold or silver ; yet they made idols, 
vases, solid staves a yard long with serpents inlaid, and sceptre-heads decorated 
with condor-like birds. The household vaisselle of the Ynkas consisted of gold 
and silver, copper and stone. Rivero, analysing Peruvian weapons and tools 
(hatchets and chisels), found from five to ten per cent, silica: he could not 
determine whether it was an artificial or an accidental impurity. Tschudi (1841) 
discovered copper arms in a tomb three leagues from Huaco, and established the 
fact that the Peruvians used the paddle-sword and the scymitar.* A copper axe, 
found in a Huaca (old grave) at the now well-known Arica, was associated with a 
thong-sling and with other primitive instruments. 

The people of New Granada, according to the tale of Bollaert,* *gilt* their 
copper by * rubbing the juice of a plant on it and then putting it into the fire, when 
it took the gold colour ' — a process which reminds us of Pliny's ox-gall varnish. 
Ecuador forged copper nippers for tweezers. The Chitchas, or Muiscas (i.e. men), 
of Bogota, who knew only gold and ignored copper, tin, lead, and iron, made their 
weapons and tools of hard wood and stone. Thomas Ewbank,* of New York, 
catalogues as breast-plates two laminae of copper and one of bronze, the latter 
being notably the lighter. Out of sundry * bronzes * from Peru he found four of 
pure copper. Chile had abundant mines of copper, and her metal is held to be 
the toughest : a bar three-eighths of an inch thick will bend backwards and 
forwards forty-eight times before breaking. Her chief centres are Copiapo (i.e. 
'turquoise*), Huasco, Coquimbo, Aconcdgua and Cal^o. The Couche range at 
Guatacondo, in sight of the desert of Atacama, which gave a name to Atacamite 
(submuriate of copper), is said to supply from the same vein gold, silver, copper, 
and coquimbite or white copperas called Pampua (pack-fong T)} Gillis (Plate 
viii. 12, 3) described, amongst the antiquities found near the great Ynkarial High- 

> Doubtless copied from Old- World articles. On By William Bollaert. London : Thibner, i860, 

the west side of Palenque the Sword is distinctly We must probably change * brass * into * bronze * 

Egyptian (Stephens, YtucUan), I have attempted to when he says (p. 90) that * the Peruvians used tools 

show how easily castaway mariners could be swept of brass.* 

by currents from Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. * Appendix to Life in Brazil (Sampson Low, 

See *Ostreiras of the Brazil* in Antkropologia^ 1856). 

No. I, October 1873. * This white copperas was detected by Scacchi on 

' Antiquarian, Ethnological, and other Researches, the fumaroles after the Vcsuvian eruption of 1855. 



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COPPER, 69 

road, a cast copper axe, weighing about three and a quarter pounds : he doubts, 
however, that the ancient Chilians worked in that metal. The wild Araucanians 
called gold 'copper* (Bollaert, p. 184). According to Molina, the Puelche tribe 
extracted from the mines of Payen a copper containing half its weight (?) in gold ; 
and the same natural alloy was found in the Curico mines. 

Returning to the Old World, we sec copper tools denoted in Egyptian hieroglyphs 
by a reddish-brown tint ; * iron and steel, as in Assyria, being coloured, not grey, 
but water-blue.^ With these yellow tools the old workmen are seen cutting stone 
blocks and fashioning colossal statues. Dr. John Forbes, of Edinburgh,^ had a 
large chisel of pure copper, showing marks of use, found with a wooden mallet in an 
Egyptian tomb. A flat piece of copper, apparently a knife-blade, was turned up 
when boring thirteen feet below the surface where stands the statue of Ramses II. 
(B.C. 1400).'* The Abb^ Barth^lemy proved, to the satisfaction of P. J. Rossignol, 
that the arms of the Greeks were first of copper ; that iron was introduced about 
the date of the Trojan war (circ. B.C. 1200),* and that after this time * Athor- 
Venus * was no more in use. Ulysses (' Iliad,* i. 4, 279) offers Achilles all the gold 
and copper he can collect, and Achilles will carry off* all the gold, the red copper 
(^aXicoi/ ipvOpov), women, and iron or steel (aiBijpov), when Peleides returns that 
noble answer : 

Hostile to me is the man as the hatefuUest gateway of Hades, 
Whoso in thought one thing dare hide and utter another.** 

Numa ordered the priests to cut their hair with copper, not iron, scissors.^ Copper 
vases and kettles as tomb-furniture were found by Dr. Schliemann at Mycenae : 
the museum of the Warwakeion at Athens contains seven of these funeral urns. 
They have also been met with at Etruscan Cometo and Palestrina, and in 
Austrian Hallstatt,® a cemetery which dates from the days when iron was coming 

* Gold was shown by yellow, and silver by white. 
Dr. Evans (Brvnu, &c. p. 7) suggests that the 
round blue bar used by butchers (Wilkinson, iii. 247) 
was not of steel ; but his reasons are peculiarly un- 
satisfactory. The file is a common implement 
amongst savages, doubtless derived from the practice 
of cross-hatching wooden grips and handles. Mr. 
A. H. Khind (TA^des, &c) attributes little weight to 
the diversity of colours employed by ancient Egyp- 
tians to depict metallic objects, and he finds red and The presence of the tin may have been accidental, 
green confused. The proportion of arsenic (2J per cent.) might have 

* Thus we have a blue war-helmet of ring-mail been expected to harden the metal, yet it was so soft 
(Lepsius, DenkmaUr^ iii. 115 &c. ), a blue war-hatchet as to be almost useless. 

with wooden handle, and spears pointed with brown- • See chap. ix. 

red and blue (copper and iron) in the tomb of • It is equivalent to the Roman's • Aliud clausum 

Ramses III. The war-car of an ^Ethiopian king, in pectore, aliud in lingua promptum habere.* 

in the days of Tutankamun, has blue wheels and a ' So amongst the Jews the sharp knives for cir- 

body of yellow (gold). Lepsius, however, adds : • It curacision {Josh. v. 2-3) were of the silex which they 

is very remarkable that in all the representations of learned from the Egyptians ; and the custom con- 

the old empire, blue-painted instruments can scarcely tinued long after the invention of metal blades. 

be traced.* This simply proves that iron and sieel • It was opened by Herr Ramsauer, and carefully 

were rare. described in Das Grahfeld von Hallstatt^ by Baron 



• Prehistoric Man^ chap. viii. 




< It was analysed by Mr. E. 


Tookey, with the 


following results : 




Copper . . . . 


9712 


Arsenic . . . . 


229 


Iron . . . . 


043 


Tin, with traces of gold . 


024 



10008 



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70 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

into use, and apparently belongs to a much later period than Mycenae. The 
Hindus had a copper coinage, and that of the sub-Himalayan Gangetic provinces 
appears older than Greek art. There is a copper coin bearing on the reverse the 
rude figure of a horse, and on the obverse a man with legend in old Buddhist 
(Pali) letters Khatrapasa Pagdmashasa.* The Jews, who, like the Etruscans, had a 
copper coinage, used the metal for offence and defence. As amongst the Philis- 
tines, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians, whose relics have been found in the Cannae 
Plain, the metal was at first pure. The * bow of steel * (Job xx. 24, Ps. xviii. 34) 
should be rendered * bow of copper,' either copper-plated or (more probably) so 
tempered as to be elastic. Goliah of Gath (B.C. 1063), who measured nine feet 
six inches, carried a target, greaves, a spear with an iron head, and a scale-coat * 
of copper : the spcar-hcad weighed six hundred and the armour five thousand 
shekels (each 320 grains Troy), or 33*33 and 27777 lbs.' David was armed (i Sam. 
xvii. 38) with a helmet of copper. Ishi-benob (B.C. 1018), who was *of the sons 
of the giant,' carried a spear weighing three hundred shekels (about sixteen and a 
half pounds) of copper. Finally, Buffon believes that the arms of the ancient 
Asiatics were cuprine. 

Mr. John Latham declares:* * Copper is a metal of which, in its unalloyed state, 
no relics have been found throughout England. Stone and bone first, then bronze 
or copper and tin combined, but no copper alone. I cannot get over this hiatus, 
cannot imagine a metallurgic industry beginning with the use of alloys.' But this 
is a negative argument. The simple mineral would soon disappear to make 
bronze, and we have some pure specimens. Sir David Brewster ^ describes a large 
battle-axe of pure copper found on the blue clay, twenty feet deep below the 
Ratho Bog. Philips ® gives the analysis of eight so-called * bronzes,* including 
three Swords, one from the Thames and two from Ireland : the spear-head was of 
impure but unalloyed copper, 9971 to 0*28 sulphur. Dr. Daniel Wilson ^ analysed 

E. von Sacken. I shall have more to say of it (Troy), which would reduce the weights to 22*91 and 

in chap. xiii. 190*97 lbs. respectively ; but Maimonides makes it = 

» Prinseps* -fi'wjyf (London, 1858), vol. i. p. 222, 320 grains of barley -as many grains Troy. See Park - 

pi. xliv. fig. 12, and Joum, R, As. Soc, Bengal, hwxsi (Lex,, s.v, 'Amat*). Either figure would form 

vol. vii. pi. xxxii. fig. 12. Long descriptions of a fair burden for a horse ; and the spear would have 

copper smelting in India are found in Science been a most unhandy article, unless used by a man 

Gleanings, pp. 380 et seq.. No. 36, Dec. 1 83 1, Cal- ten feet tall. I shall notice the Gathite's Sword in 

cutta, and in Percy {Meiall. p. 387) ; the latter by chap. ix. 

Mr. IL F. Blanford, of the Geol. Survey, who made * Ethnology of the British Islands, We also 

especial studies in Himalayan Sikkim and the read: 'Copper Swords have been found in Ireland ; 

N. paulese Tirhai. The workmen, who are of low iron among the Britons and Gauls ; bronze was used 

caste, win the stone in small blast-furnaces about three by the Romans, and probably by the Egyptians ; and 

feet high, burning charcoal and cow-chips. They steel of varying degrees of hardness is now the only 

work not only the easily reducible carbonates, but weapon employed.' (J. Latham: see chap, vii.) 
sulphuretted ores, copper pyrites, with a mixture of » y^^^ ^^,.^^ ^^^y^,^ ^oc, Feb. 1822. 

mundic (iron pyrites). ,^ . ^ . ^, . , 

' Scales are apparently implied by kastassin ' J- ^ Phi^'P'. ^-CS- Menwtrsoftht Chemual 

(I Sam. xvii), which in Leviticus and Ezekiel applies ^^' ^^^' *^' 
to fish-scales. * Archeology and Prehisfoiic Anfials of Scotland, 

• The shekel is usually estimated at 220 grs. p. 246. 



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COPPER IN EUROPE, 



71 



in 1850 seven British * bronzes/ and found one Scottish axe-head, rudely sand-cast, 
of almost pure copper, the natural alloy of gold and silver not reaching to one per 
cent. Moreover, the Romans certainly smelted copper in England, where lumps 
of pure metal, more or less rounded, have been found, but always in association 
with bronze articles. Pennant describes a relic discovered at Caerhun (or Cacrhen), 
the old Conovium, near Conway and Llandudno, which still works copper : it was 
shaped like a cake of beeswax, measuring eleven inches by three and three-quarter 
inches in thickness ; it weighed forty-two pounds, and the upper surface bore in deep 
impression, * Socio Romae ' (to the partner at Rome). Obliquely across the legend 
ran in smaller letters, * Natsoc' It had evidently been smelted upon the spot. 
In later days our country imported her copper from Sweden and Hungary : this 
appears in the specification of patent to George Danby, Jan. 21, 1636. Calamine 
was shipped as ballast. Our great works began during the last century and 
culminated in Swansea. 






Fig. 76.— The Winged Celts, or Palstave. 

X. Semilunar blade ; the rounded side edges arc ornamented in the casting with a raised hexagon pattern ; they project somewhat 
above the level of the flat surface of the implement. The curved stops, which are rudimentary, have their concavities facing 
the handle, a. In the Palstave celt the loop is usually placed beneath the stock, and in the socketed ones it is always close to 
the top. The cut, drawn one-third of the actual size, represents the usual position of the loop. The lunette cutting edge, with 
marked recurved points, presents the appearance of having been ground.' These implements were cast in moulds olbronjre 
examples of which have been brought to light at various times. The third illustration represents the upper part of one of these 
celt moulds and the method of casting : they were for a long time a source of confusion to the discoverers, although Colonel 
Vallanc)' assigns them to their true use. 

Wilde (p. 490) expresses the general opinion when he asserts that * the use of 
copper invariably preceded that of bronze.* He well explains by two reasons why 
so few antique implements of pure copper have been found in Ireland : either a 
very short period elapsed between the discovery of treating the pure ores and the 
introduction of bronze ; or the articles, once common, were recast and converted 
into the more valuable mixed metal. The latter cause is made probable by the 
early intercourse with Cornwall, one of the great tin emporia. * Tin-stone ' (native 
peroxide of tin or stannic acid) is produced in small quantities by Ireland, and 
Dr. Charles Smith ' declares that he collected it 

• See Sir W. Wilde's Cat, Metallic Maiexials- Celts, Museum of Royal Irish Academy. 
' History of Kerry, p. 125. 



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Fig. 77.— Copper Celts in the Dublin Collection. 



72 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

Wilde also notices, in the Royal Irish Academy, weapons, tools, and ornaments 

of red metal or pure copper. These are thirty celts of the greatest simplicity and 

the earliest pattern, rudely formed tools, a few fibulae, a trumpet, two battle-axes, 

and several Sword-blades of the short, broad, and curved shape usually called scythes. 

The pure copper celts, formed upon two or three types, are the oldest in the 

2 Dublin collection, and were probably 

the immediate successors of the stone 
implement. As a rule they have one 
side smoother than the other, as if they 
had been run into simple stone moulds ; 
they are also thicker and of rougher 
surface than the bronze article. For the 
most part they are rude and unoma- 
mented wedges of cast metal : a few 
are lunette-shaped and semilunar blades. 
The cleansed specimens show a great 
variety of colour. When first found, the 
brown crust, peculiar to the oxidised 
metal, readily distinguishes them from 
the bronze patina, the beautiful varnish of aeruginous or verdigris hue, artificial 
malachite resembling in colour the true native carbonate of copper. 

The broad scythe-shaped Swords, numbering forty-one, are supposed to be 

* specially and peculiarly Irish.' The straight blades are shown by their large burrs, 
holes, and rivets either to end in massive handles of metal, or to be attached to 
wooden staves, long or short. Of this kind some are curved. As many are of 

* red bronze ' (pure copper), darkened by oxidation, it is probable that they are of 
great antiquity, like the celts of that period. Although in some cases the points 
have been broken off, yet the edges are neither hacked, indented, nor worn ; hence 
the conclusion that they were true stabbing Swords. Yet Mr. John Evans declares 
that he knows no such thing as a copper Sword. In this matter he partially 
follows L^vesque de la Ravaliere, who declared copper arms unknown to the 
Greeks * and Romans, Gauls and Franks : this savant was refuted and charged with 
unfairly treating his authorities by the Comte de Caylus in a description of seven 
copper Swords dug up (175 1) at Gensal in the Bourbonnais. The Abb^ Barthdlemy 
attributed seven copper blades to the Franks in the reign of Childeric. 

We have ample evidence that * copper * is ambiguously used by modem travellers. 
The modern discoverer of Troy ^ gives us, in his last and revised volume, a full 
account of exploring fifty-three feet deep of debris and laying bare the stratified 
ruins of seven cities, including that of the * ground floor ' and the Macedonian 
ruins. The two lowest bear witness to a copper age anterior to bronze, whilst they 

• Vet /lischylus {Agamem,) uses both chalcos and sideros generically for a weapon. 
' liios^ &c. (London, Murray, 1880). 



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COPPER SWORDS, 



71 



yielded the only gilded object, a copper knife, and the most advanced art in 
specimens of hand-made pottery.* The second from below was walled, and the 
third, the most important, was the Burnt City, the city of the golden treasures, 
identified with Ilios. The explorer claims to have reduced the Homeric Ilium to 
its true proportions. The grand characteristic in his finds is the paucity of iron, 
which appeared only in the shape of oxidised * sling-bullets * : tin is also absent. 
Both these metals, it is true, oxidise most readily ; yet, had the objects been 
numerous, they would have left signs, in rust and stains. From * Troy * we learn 
(p. 22) that *all the copper articles met with are of pure copper, without the 






Fig. 78.— Scythk-shaped 
Blade. 



Fig. 70. 
Straight Bu 



Fig. 80. 
Straight Blade. 



Fig. 81.— Scvthb-shaped 
Blade. 



admixture of any other metal ' : the author also finds that * implements of pure 
copper were employed contemporaneously with enormous quantities of stone 
weapons and implements.* He will not admit (* Troy,' p. 82) that he has reached 
the bronze period when he discovers in the * Trojan stratum,' at a depth of thirty- 
three to forty-six and fifty-two feet, nails, knives, lances, and * elegantly- worked 
battle-axes of pure copper.' ' And we can accept the copper, for much of it was 
analysed by Professor Landerer, of Athens, * a chemist well known through his 
discoveries and writings.' He examined the fragments found in the * Treasury of 
Priam,' and made all of them to consist of pure copper, without any admixture of 
tin or zinc (* Troy,' p. 340). When treating of the Bronze Age, I shall show that 
alloys were not wanting. 



* Some small objeclyare reported as wheel-made; 
but this requires confirmation, according to a writer 
in the Athmaum (Dec. 18, 1880). 



« The copper bracelet [Troy, p. 150, No. 88) with 
its terminal knobs is the modem trade ' manilla * of 
the West African coast. This survival will again be 
noticed in chap. ix. 



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74 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SECOND CHALCITIC AGE OF ALLOYS *— BRONZE, BRASS, ETC. : 
THE AXE AND THE SWORD. 

The use of copper, I have said, would be essentially transitional ; and the discovery 
of smelting one kind of metal would lead immediately to that of others and to their 
commixture. Moreover, when casting and moulding began to be a general prac- 
tice, unalloyed copper difficult to smelt, and when melted thick, sluggish, and 
pasty, would not readily run without some mixture into all the sinuosities of the 
mould. In this chapter I propose to notice the second chalcitic age — that of the 
earliest combinations of metals, their workers, and their application to weapons. 

J. P. Rossignol, following the opinion of the symbolists and mysticists, as the 
Baron de Saint Croix,^ Creuzer, Freret, and Lobechs,^ assigns a Divine origin — after 
the fashion of the day — to metallurgy, making it resemble in this point Creation, 
articulate language,* and the discovery of com and wine. So he understands the 
dzoKo^ovixiva (subjects of a theological nature) alluded to by Strabo (x. 3, § 7). It 
is the old hypothesis of supernatural agency in purely natural matters, a kind of 
luxus-wonder, as the Germans call useless miracles, which had waxed stale, even in 
the days of Horace — *parcus Deorum cultor et infrequens.' He considers the 
Curetes and Corybantes, the Cabiri (Kabeiroi) of Lemnos and Imbros, and the Idaei 
Dactyli of Crete, the Telchines of Rhodes, and the Sinties, Sinti, or Saii of Thrace 
(Strabo, xii. 3, § 20) as metallurgic Salfiov69, or genii prisoned in human form, and 
typifying the successive steps of the art. In these days we hardly admit the 
intersi't of a deity when human nature suffices to loose the knot ; nor do we believe 
that our kind began by worshipping types. Man has always worshipped one thing, 

» The word in its older form was written * allay.' in subsequent ages, has never been approach<-d; and 

Johnson derives it from ^ la hi, aUier, allocate : it from which there has not anywhere been discovered 

appears to me the Spanish el ley, the legal quality of a gradual advancement ; but, on the contrary, an 

coinable metal. We have now naturalised in English immediate and decidedly progressive declension.* 

ley, meaning a standard of metals. (Sub voc. Diet, of This, however, is a mere question of dates. Man's 

Obsolete and Provincial English, by Thomas Wright; civilisation b^;an long before the Mosaic Creation ; 

London, Bell and Daldy, 1869. ) and science has agreed to believe that savage life gener- 

• Recherchcs sur Us Mysthres ; and MSmoire pour ally is not a decadence from higher types, not a 

servir h la religion secrete, &c. &c. degeneracy, but a gradual development. 

■ The * Aglaophemus,' so called from the initiator * We now divide language into three periods: 1st, 

of Pythagoras. I see symptoms of a revival in asser- in tonal ive, like the cries of children and lower 

tions concerning a * highly cultivated beginning, with animals ; 2nd, imitative, or onomatopoetic ; and 3rd, 

the arts well known and practised to an extent which, conventional, the civilised form. 



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THE GOD-SMITHS, 75 

himself, and himself only, either in the flesh or in the ghost— that is, in the non- 
flesh or the objective nothing — till he arrived at the transcendental Man, the super- 
lative, the ideal of Himself. 

How little of fact is known about the mysterious tribes above mentioned be- 
comes evident by a glance at the classics. All six are supposed to be Asiatics, 
worshippers of Rhea (the earth), the great mother of the gods and queen of the 
metal workers. Yet Strabo explains Curetcs from Greek terms Kopoi (boys), Kopai 
(girls), Kovpd (tonsure), and KovpoTpo<f>uv (to bring up the Boy, i.e. Jupiter). Simi- 
larly their brethren, the nine Corybantes, were termed from their dancing gait and 
negro-like butting with the head, KopvirTovras. They inhabited Samothrace 
(Samothracia alta) : this venerable and holy island, in hoar antiquity a general 
rendezvous of freemasonry, or rather of free-smithery, forms a triangle with 
metallic Thasos and with volcanic Lemnos. 

The three or four Cabiri * bear a Semitic name, Kabir = the great or the old. 
They seem at first to have represented Ptah-Sokar-Osiris,'* and Herodotus (iii. 37) 
mentions their temple at Memphis. They became in Phoenicia the earliest boat- 
men or primordial shipbuilders, identified by some with the Sesennu or Eg>'ptian 
Octonary ; by others with the seven planets or the stars of Typho, our Great Bear ; ^ 
and by others, again, with the seven Khnemu (gnomes) or pygmy-sons who waited 
upon their father Ptah-Vulcan. They inhabited Lemnos, where Hephaestus, when 
expelled, like Adam, from the lowest heaven, took refuge among the Pclasgi 
(Diod. Sic. lib. v.) : hence the latter preserved their worship. Damascius (* Life of 
Isidorus *) says : * The Asclepius of Berytus is neither Greek nor Egyptian, but of 
Phoenician origin ; for (seven) sons were born to Sadyk, called Dioscuri and Cabiri, 
and the eighth of them was Esman (i.e. Octavius, No. 8), who is interpreted 
Asclepius.' * 

The Idaean Dactyli (fingers or toes) who occupied * fountful Ide *•* consisted of 
five brothers, representing the dextra or lucky hand (science, art), and five sisters 
for the sinistra or unlucky (witchcraft, ill omens). The names of these * hands ' 
(iron - workers) were Kelmis (fire or heat = the smelter), Damnameneus (the 
hammer, or who governs by strength, Thor), Hercules (force, animal or mental), 
and Akmon (the anvil or passive principle). Hence Pyracmon the Cyclop, one of 
the seven architect brothers who, according to Strabo (viii. 6), came from Lycia 

* Axieros (the earth -goddess), Axiokersa (Proser- * The temples of the Cabiri have lately been 
pine of the Greeks), Axiokersos (Hades), and Cos- explored by Prof. Conze for the Austrian Govern- 
milos (Hermes or Mercury). Ennemoser may be ment at Samothrace, and we may expect to learn 
right in making the Kabeiroi pygmies (i.e. gnomes), something less vague concerning these mysterious 
but not in rendering Dactyloi by * finger-size.* ancients. 

* The lame and deformed * artificer of the universe,' 

who became Hephsestos (Vulcan) in Greece, and * The Rev. Basil H. Cooper believes that the 

Vishvakarma in India. Sokar has left his name in Phrygian was the original Ida, which gradually passed 

the modern * Sakkarah. * to Crete ; and here the Idaei were priests of Cybele. 

* The Assyrian cuneiforms allude to 'the (Great) He is disposed to connect with it the Greek 'SX^{i\po)\ 
Bear making its crownship,* that is, circling round the the German Eisen (and our iron), and the IdafcUt 
North Pole. and yf^i of the Norse myths (Day, p. 133). 



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y6 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

and built the * Cyclopean Wall ' in the Argolid. These Cyclopes * (monocular 
giants) worked metal, and under their magic hands, 

Fluit aes rivis aurique metallum ; 
Vulnificusque chalybs vasta fornice liquescit 

By later writers, the Cyclopes, who 

. . . Stridentia tingunt 
-^ra lacu i^/En, viii. 445, Georg, iv. 172), 

were held to be Sicilians. 

The Telchines (fascinators, from OdXysiv, to charm) are mentioned as metallur- 
gists by Stesichorus the Sicilian (nat B.C. 632) : they were the sons of Thalassa, 
i.e. they came from beyond the sea ; they colonised Telchinis, and they made arms 
and statues of the gods like the Daedalides or artist families of later Athens. The 
Sinties (plunderers) from to aipsa0ai (to pill), who, according to Hellenicus of 
Lesbos (nat. B.C. 496), were pirates besides being coppersmiths (;^a\>cv^f), and who 
were eventually murdered by their wives, represented the ancient Lemnians. So 
Homer (* Od.' viii. 290) speaks of the * barbarous Sintian men * who received Vulcan 
when kicked out of Paradise. A modem school of Tsiganologues would identify 
them with prehistoric Gypsies, who have still a tribe called Sindi ; but this theory 
would bring the arts from India westwards, whereas the current flowed the clean 
contrary way. Finally, Herodotus (i. 28), initiated in the mysteries, makes the 
Chalybes * or iron-workers, neighbours (and congeners >) of the Phrygians. 

It is not difficult to see the general gist of such legends. All these tribes pro- 
bably came (like Pelops, Tantalus, and Niobe) from the same place, Phrygia, the 
fertile plateau of Asia Minor, and its Katakekaumene or volcanic tract It was, as 
far as we know, the first western centre which developed the * Aryan * or non-Semitic 
element of the old Egyptian tongue. It also formed the poin^ de depart of the 
European * (miscalled * Indo-European *) branch of the family that owned the Arya- 
land (Airyanem-vaejo), whose ethnic centre was the barbarous region about Ray, 
Heri, or Heraf* Hence, says Herodotus (iii. 2), the Egyptians owned the Phrygians 

> The name is derived by Bochart from Heb. Lub dagger, with which they cut the throats of all whom 

or Lelub^ Dlbp^ru chiefs of the Libu or Ribu, as the they can master ; and then, lopping off their heads, 

old Egyptians called the Libyans. Hence the Prom. bear them away (iv. 7). Strabo makes the Chalybes 

Lilybasum {Li-Liib) and the Sinus ad Libyam or the same as their neighbours the Chaldad. 

* ^ ,,f" *" .• i- . J * M • .u * The well-known inscription on the tomb of 

3 We have satisfactory details concerning the ... , , . . u t- • / ^ • »^- 

_^ , ^ . . y \ • • *v # A • Midas, and another given by Texier lAsu Mtneure^ 

Chalybes, who border on Armenia, in the Anabasu .. v «v diT • * . u u 

/. c V T-u J 11 . At n * ^ "• 57) show the Phrygian tongue to have been a 

(iv. 5, &C.). They dwell two days from Colyora, -"' r >-. 1 i. , „/, .. ,, 

V I * J u c- .u w . ! ♦ul congener of Greek. Even the Bikos of Herodotus 

the colony planted by Smope ; they are subject to the .' \\ - n- j * . u 1 » j jmj . 

.^ , ,, u* u • I- / .\ ("• 2) is allied to our * bake,' and BJi/u to our 

MossyncECi, and they subsist by iron-working (v. 5). . ^ , ... . . \ r r _» • r 

_, •^, , ' . ^ * 11 I f 11 r 'water.* We are greatly m want of further mforma- 

Though few, they are a most wariike people, full of u * nu • j •* • . 1. i_ j 1. ^ , t 

/•i-.T-v- •. fui ♦ Jl«™ ««^ ^^^^ ^^^^ Phrygia, and it is to be hoped that Colonel 

fight. Their armour consists of helmets, greaves, and ^* T f 

• e. -.^v A u-« r .u^„^;« Wilson and Mr. W. M. Ramsay will complete the 

cuirasses of twisted linen cords, reaching to the groin. , , r 1- • j tt 1 

^, u . rr. u* 1 iu • labours of Texier and Hamilton. 

They carry spears about fifteen cubits long, * having 

one spike' (i.e. without ferule); and at their girdles * The Aryans of Herodotus, about the Arius 

a short faulchion, as large as a Spartan crooked river {//^ri-rtJt/), are an undistinguished tribe, a mere 



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ALLOYS, 77 

to surpass them in antiquity. The emigrants would pass to the islands Samothrace, 
Lemnos, Thera/ the Cyclades and Crete ; to Greece, Thessaly and Epirus, Attica, 
Argos, and the farthest south, where * Pelops the Phrygian,* son of King Tantalus, 
colonised the Morea and founded the Pelopid race. Then they would find a home 
in Italy, Hetruria, and lapygia (or Messapia), Peucetia and Daunia, and finally 
they would settle in Iberia, Spain, and Portugal, where the Briges or Brygi 
(Phrygians) have left their names in the Braganza of the present day. 

These Proto-Phrygians and Phrygo-Europeans, of whom several tribes returned 
to Asia, were the prehistoric metal-workers. The smith (from smitan^ to strike) 
was sacred in the dawn of history ; and the Sword-maker was not inferior to him. 
Those who have witnessed the awe and reverence with which savages and barbarians 
regard a European mechanic at his forge will see exemplified the emotional 
feeling which led to the human becoming the superhuman.* 

The first step in Kparepw^ (hardening of metals) was, according to Hesychius, 
Ml^ts x^^^^^ f^^^ Kaaairipov (the mingling of copper and tin). The alloy was 
known generically as chalcos (base metal), specifically as yaKKf^^ fUXaivos (black 
chalcos). The Latins persisted in terming it simply (Bs ; e.g. ces inauratum (gilt 
bronze). Our word bronze derives from brunus (fuscous, sombre, brown) ; brunum 
as. Hence the Low Latin (A.D. 805) brunea^ brunia, or bronia^ a lorica or thorax ; 
and the Low Greek iropTas fiirpovr^ives (pronounce broutzines), * portals of bronze.* 
The word is also derived from the Basque or Iberian bronsea. 

Tin, one of the least durable of metals, at the same time readily fused and one 
of the easiest to treat metallurgically, was called by the Greeks Kaaairepo^, and by 

the Latins cassiteron^ whence probably the Arab. ;i*x-^, and the Sanskrit W^f^^. 

The Hebrew name is ^nn (Badfl=a substitute, a separation, an alloy). Hut (white 
metal) in Egyptian includes silver and tin : in Coptic it is Thram, Thran, or 
Basensh. Kalaf (Linschoten's * Calaem *) is the popular term for tin in India : the 
word is Arabic rather than Turkish. Tenekeh (tin-plate) in Arabic is an evident 
congener of the Assyrian t? »--<^ <^ I * Anaker,* and it remarkably resembles 
the Scandinavian Din, German Zinn, and our Tin. As we find * Teyne * in Chaucer 

satrapy. Strabo's Aria (xi. 9) is a tract about 250 by * I have personally noticed this, and described it 

40 miles. In Pliny (vi. 23) Ariana includes only the in Midian Revisited^ vol. i. p. 143. 

lands of the Gedrosi (Mekran), the Arachoti (Kan- • Bcckmann {s.v, *Tin') tells us that the metal 

dahir), the Arii proper (Herat), and the Para- 'never occurs in a native state.' He forgets stream-tin. 

pomisadse (Kabul). It has been truly said that even He also denies that the oldest * cassiteron ' and ' stan- 

if Aryan and Turanian man (first) centred in and num' were tin; andconsiders them to mean the German 

emerged from these areas (the table-lands of Asia), Werk^ a regulus of silver and lead. His vasaslannta 

the so-called history is entirely based on the philo- are vessels covered with tin in the inside. In the 

logical discoveries of the Sanskrilist schooL fourth century * plumbum candidum * or * album ' was 

superseded by *stannum.* Speaking of electrum, 

> Therasia and Therassia, now Santorin. Here Beckmann asserts that *the ancients were not ac- 

have been found ruins of prehistoric cities buried by quaintcd with the art of separating gold and silver. ' 

the great central \ olcano. According to most geo- * Britain,* Vnis Prydhain Island, where the god 

logists the latter was exhausted in B.C. 1800-1700. Prydhain was worshipped, or rather • Isle of the 



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78 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

and old writers, * tin ' may come from its easy * thinning * or beating out. The 
later Latins changed th^ plutnbum album or white lead of Pliny (iv. 30) to stan- 
num : whence our word derived through the neo- Latin. The origin of Kassiteron, 
Kasdfr, Kastira, is disputed, and philologists remark that Cassi is a British (Keltic) 
prefix, as in Cassi-belanus. Tin was found in the Caucasus, in India, in Southern 
Persia (Drangse Country) ; in Tuscany, in Iberia (Spain and Portugal),* in Sweden, 
Saxony, Bohemia, Hungary, and notably in England. There are still deposits near 
the modern Temeswar (Pannonia), and the granite hills of Gallicia and Zamora 
are not exhausted. It is now produced in Russia, Greenland, the Brazil, and the 
United States. Wilkinson would fetch the alloy of ancient Egypt from Spain, 
India, Malacca, or even from Banca,' between Sumatra and Borneo ; the Banca 
tin-mines, long worked by the Chinese were first visited by the Portuguese in 1 506. 
But compounds of tin and copper were common in Egypt at the time of the Sixth 
Dynasty (B.C. 3000). Tin is mentioned as early as B.C. 1452 in the Book of Num- 
bers (xxxii. 22), with gold and silver, * brass' (copper, especially pyrites), iron, and 
lead ^ (*oferet *). In B.C. 760 the prophetic books, called from Isaiah (i. 25) and 
from Ezekiel (xxii. 18, 20), make tin an alloy of silver. 

The Egyptians would derive their metals in the first place from Upper Egypt ; 
and their first Kheft or mines of gold {klieteni) and copper lay in the Thebaid. 
Secondly, they would resort to the land of Midian on the eastern flank, and running 
south of the long narrow gulf, El-Akabah : this grand range of Ghats or Coast 
Mountains was in those days a noted mining centre, and it has still a great indus- 
trial future. Thirdly, by means of the Phoenicians, who apparently taught the 
Greeks metallurgy which they learned in Egypt, they would import their tin from 
Southern France, Spain, and England.* 

It is a disputed question whether the Phoenicians discovered the tin-stones and 
the stream- tin of theCassiterides,* or whether the ore was worked by the * Welsh of 
the Horn ' — the barbarians of Cornwall and Devonshire, who in those days were 

Brythons,* has been fancifully derived by the ener- Nile-dwellers extended through Midian to El-Hejaz 
gctic Semitiser from Barrat-et-Tanuk = Land of Tin. and El-Yemen, where they worked the mines which 

* Ezekiel tells us that the Tynans received tin, became known to the Hebrews. 

as well as other metals, from Tarshish, or Western * In 1866 De Rougemont made Phoenicia supply 

Tartessus, in the Bay of Gibraltar. bronze to Europe, the copper being brought from 

' M. Emile Bumouf, * L*Age de Bronze,* Revue Cyprus. Besides the Mediterranean, we find a 

^iv Z?rt/jr iWi?«</?j, July 15, 1877, also brings tin from Uralian and a Danubian branch of the industry. 

Banca. The island is about 150 miles long by 36 Before 1877 France had supplied 650 bronze Swords 

broad ; it has no mountain backbone, but the peak of and daggers, Sweden 480, and Switzerland 86. 
Goonong Maras rises some 3,000 feet above the sea- * Alias the Qilstrymnides. Borlase was of opinion 

level. Chinese coolies still work the mines of Min- that the group formed one block, with several head- 

tok, and in 1852 the yearly yield was some 50,000 lands, of which *Scilly* was the highest, outermost, 

piculs (each— 133^ lbs.) at the cost of nine rupees per and most conspicuous. He conjectures the original 

picul. name to be Syllt^ Sulla^ or Suileh, a flat rock dedi- 

• Beckmann {loc, cii,\ like Michaelis, is surprised cated to the sun ; hence the Lat. Silina^ Silures^ and 
at the Midianites possessing tin in the days of Moses. Sigdeles; the Engl. Sylley^ Scilley^ and lately Scilly ; 
These were the views of the last century. I have the Fr. Sorlingues ; and the Span. Sorlingas, The 
suggested {Athetiaum^ Nov. 24, 1880) that the old Keltic name of the chief feature was Tnis Caer. 



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TIN, 79 

probably confined to small coast-clearings.* Herodotus, indeed, knows nothing 
(iii. IIS) of '^^y islands called the Cassiterides (tin islands) whence the tin comes/ 
These Silures or Scilly Islands were evidently mere dep6ts, not sites of produc- 
tion. The Phoenicians kept their secret well, and lost their ships rather than betray 
it ; so says Strabo (iii. 5, § 11), whose Cassiterides appear to be the Azores.* The 
age when the trade was first opened is disputed ; some place it B.C. 1 500, others ^ 
reduce it to B.C. 400. Diodorus Siculus (v. 21-2) tells us that tin was found and 
run into pigs near the Belerium Promontory (Land's End) ; thence it was carted to 
Ictis (Vectis, not the Isle of Wight, but Saint Michael's Mount and Love Island) ; * 
and lastly horsed across Gaul to the Rhone. There is in the Truro Museum * a 
pig of tin, flat above and reniform below (the shape of the mould), two feet eleven 
inches by eleven inches broad, with a particular mark ; it has been suggested that 
this is Phoenician. * Cassiter Street ' in Bodmin is supposed to retain the classical 
name. The second Thursday before Christmas Day is called in Cornwall (Kern- 
Walli, Cornu Galliae) * Picrous Day,' from the man who discovered the * streaming ' 
(or washing) of * stean ' or tin. Strabo gives a bad account of the people of the 
twelve Cassiterides and their Cornishmen, the latter * resembling the Furies we see 
in tragic representations.' These pleasant persons would find stream-tin, almost fit 
for use, lying upon the surface by the side of copper pyrites — the latter harder than 
tin, but still comparatively soft and ductile. Both ores were easily fused, while 
iron was comparatively difficult and tedious to smelt ; and the two (copper and 
tin) combined were not only more fusible, but they also continued longer in the 
fluid state, facilitating casting and moulding. Hence Worsaaee believes that England 
was an ancient centre of bronze, whence the alloy was diffused throughout Europe. 
It is usually stated that the bronze-using period in England began between B.C. 
1400 and 1200, and lasted eight to ten centuries, the invasion of Caesar taking 
place during the early * Iron Age.' 

The great bronze manufacture which we have first to consider is Egypt. The 
exact average proportion of the alloy is hard to ascertain,® the tin varying from ten 
to twenty per cent., and the copper from eighty to ninety per cent. A dagger 
analysed by Vauquelin gave copper eighty-five, tin fourteen, and iron one per cent 
Wilkinson's bronze chisel, nine and a quarter inches long, and weighing one pound 
twelve ounces, found in a quarry at Thebes, contained in one hundred parts 
940 copper, 5*9 tin, o*i iron ; consequently its edge is at once turned by hard 
stone. He repeatedly mentions bronze chisels (ii. ch. vii. &c.), and he seems to 

> Archaology and Prehistoric Annals of Scotland^ * The identification is not settled ; some propose 

Part II. *The Archaic or Bronze Period.' Daniel the Isle of Thanet. 

^^^^":. t. ^ . J r • » Beckmann, jw^z/^if *Tin.» 

* Phny represents the Cassiterides as fronting 

Celtiberia. He considers it a * fabulous story * that • According to Messrs, Wibel, Fellemberg, and 

the Greeks fetched * white lead* from the islands of Damour, who investigated even -^^ parts, the 

the Adriatic. average proportions were {^ tin to 9 copper ; and \ 

* Prehistoric Times^ by Sir John Lubbock, 4th tin for hard metal, as chisels, &c. M. E. Chaunlre, 
edit. (London : Williams and Norgate, 1878.) Age de Bronte. 3 vols. (Paris : Baudry.) 



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8o 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



suspect that they were sheathed and pointed with steel. Of course, he was puzzled 
to explain how the * bronze or brass blades were given a certain degree of elasti- 
city.' » 

The result of Egj'^ptian metallurgy is admirable, both in material and finish. 
At what period bronze was introduced we ignore ; a 
cast cylinder, however, bearing the name of Pepi, dates 
from B.C. 3000 in the Sixth Dynasty of Middle Egypt, 
which includes Nitaker (Nitocris). Knives appear in the 
sculptures dating from before that time. A bronze dagger 
in the Berlin Museum, found by Sig. Passalacqua in a 
tomb at Thebes, retains a spring which might be of steel. 
My friend, Mr. W. P. Hayns, of the Alexandrian Harbour 
Works, showed me a specimen brought from Thebes by 
the late Mr. Harris, made of bronze still slightly elastic. 
The total length measures one foot, of which the blade is 
half; the latter, slightly leaf-shaped, has a minimum 
breadth of one inch and three-twelfths, and one inch at 
the shoulder. The tang, which is prolonged to the handle- 
end (four inches), has a minimum width of five-twelfths. 
The grip of two plates, hippopotamus hide (.^), probably 
boiled, and not unlike wood, has twenty-six ridges for 
firmer hold, and there are bronze rivets at the sixth and 
the twenty-third ridges : it is without pommel, the end 
being simply rounded off. 

It is held that mummies of the Eleventh Dynasty were 
buried with bronze sabres ; and there is a bronze dagger 

The material is bronze, and still otttxt-..* i-r-v \. ^ 

is slightly elastic. There is a mid- of Thut-mes ^ HI. (Eighteenth Dynastv), circa B.C. loco. 

rib, but not strongly marked. The v o • • /' 

tang, which is continued to the ^s late as Mcne-ptah II. of the Nineteenth Dynasty (B.C. 

pommel, measures 4 inches long ^ j j \ 

^r& 1 300-1 266), we read in the list of his loot, after the Prosopis 

ti^r^^;iI^^riveu'^of"bron^atX battlc, of bronze-armour. Swords, and daggers. Among 

6th and the 23rd ridges. There is,_. ,^ «rt» /> -rv 1 

no pommel, but here the handle thc Etruscans, bcfore the fouttdation of Rome, bronze 

is rounded oflf between two slices 

thr^ifh *"** '*** **"^ ^^^ "**** Statues were known ; and Romulus is said to have placed 
a statue of himself, crowned by Victory, in a_ bronze qua- 
driga taken at Comertium. According to Pausanias (iii. 12, § 8), Theodorus 
of Samos invented casting in bronze (B.C. 800-700) : this author discredits 
the Arcadian legend that Neptune dedicated a bronze statue to Poseidon (the 
Sidonian ?) Hippios (Wilkinson, ii. chap. vii.). But the Samians cast a bronze 
vase in B.C. 630. 



Fig. 82. — Fine Specimen of 
Egyptian Dagger in posses- 
sion OF Mr. Hayns, brought 
BY Mr. Harris from Thebes. 



» The late General Uchatius, who * trusted in 
princes,* and whose tragical death was greatly la- 
mented by his friends, always declared that he had 
rediscovered (not discovered) the hardening of copper 
and bronze; and that he hoped to arrive at other 



secrets. His career was cut short before he learned 
to make the metal and the alloy resilient. 

« Thut, Tuth, Toth, Thoth, &c., the moon-god 
who became Hermes Trismcgistus. 



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METALLURGY IN ASSYRIA. Si 

The importance of the Uchatius re-discovery, that is, of hardening bronze as 
well as copper by hydraulic pressure, not by phosphorus,' becomes evident by 
Wilkinson's reflections. * We know of no means of tempering copper, under any 
form, or united with any alloys for such a purpose * (as hollowing out hieroglyphics). 
He suggests that the old Egyptian letters, sometimes exceeding two inches in 
depth, and the alt-reliefs nine inches high, on granite coffins, may have been worked 
with wheel-drill and emery powder.* The Egyptians had also the secret of gilding 
bronze, as many of their remains prove ; moreover, they produced by acids a rich 
patina of dark and light greens. 

The Assyrians rivalled in metallurgy their ancient instructors the Egyptians : 
and the art passed eastwards to Persia, which inherited Assyrian and Babylonian 
civilisation. Diodorus Siculus, following Ctesias the oft-quoted contemporary of 
Xenophon, describes immense works of bronze decorating the gardens of Semi- 
ramis. In Assyria, again, the proportion of the alloy greatly varied. Layard * 
quotes the following assays of Assyrian bronze : 

No. I No. a No. 3 No. 4 

Copper .... 89-51 89-85 88*37 8479 

Tin 063 978 1 1 33 1410 

9014 99-63 99-70 9889 

No. I shows the proportions found in a bronze dish from * Nimroud ' ; No. 4 in a 
bell ; and the fore-leg of a bull * yielded 1 1*33 tin to 9970 copper. The Mesopota- 
mians were able to cast their bronze extremely thin, which is no small difficulty ; 
they fashioned it into weapons, temple utensils, and domestic articles, and they 
skilfully * elaborated it by chasing and by curious ornamental tracery.* They used 
it in their most sumptuous decorations, as the thrones prove ; and the beautiful 
workmanship of their vases shows abnormal skill in the toreumatic treatment of 
bronze. Gilt specimens of bronze from Nineveh are in the British Museum. 

Dr. Schliemann questions the popular assertion that the age of Hesiod and of 
Homer ignored alloys and fusion, knowing only plating, the plates being hammer- 

* Phosphor-bronze, for whose manufacture com- authorities, apt to volatilise with time. At present a 

panies are now established in London and elsewhere, new form of bronze, the antimonial, in proportions of 

has the ordinary composition with the addition of red 1-2 per cent., is coming into fashion : it is said to 

or amorphous phosphorus dropped upon the melted be malleable and ductile, and to resist torsion in a 

metal in the crucible. Berthler ( Traii/ des JEssais, high degree. Another new bronze is the aluminium, 

ii. 410) states that a very small quantity of phosphorus whose price has been reduced from 1,000/. to looi. 

renders copper extremely hard and suitable for cutting per ton by Mr. Webster, of Hollywood, near Bir- 
instruments. Percy {Metallurgy) found that copper 



will take up 1 1 per cent, of phosphorus ; the metal, « So called from Cape Emeri in Naxos. 

which assimies a grey tint, is quite homogeneous, and • Appendix to Layard's Nineveh and Babylm 

so hard that it can scarcely be touched by the file. (London : Murray). The proportions are nearly those 

The addition of phosphorus promotes the reduction of of our day. We may assimie our common bronze at 

the oxides, and enables an exceedingly sound and 1 1 : 100 for large, and 10 : 100 for small objects, 

durable casting to be made ; but if it exceed \ per Cymbals and sounding instruments, however, contain 

cent, the metal becomes very britUe. Dr. Percy has tin 22 : copper 78. 

described phosphor-silver, phosphor-lead, and phos- « Analysed by Mr. Robinson of Pimlico (Day, 

phor-iron. The phosphorus is, according to some p. no). 

G 



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82 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



wrought (' Od/ iii. 425). This explorer found the strata of copper and lead scoriae 
at the so-called Troy from twenty-eight to twenty-nine and a half feet deep. He 
notes also small crucibles and a mould of mica-schist (twenty-six feet deep), which 
was probably intended for bronze casting. He finds no iron ; but copper and its 
alloy, bronze, are abundant. M. Damour of Lyon ' analysed the drillings of two 
' copper * battle-axes from * Ilium,' in fact, from ' Priam's Treasury ' ; they con- 
tained 0*0864 and 0*0384 parts tin to 0'9067 and 0*9580 copper. Nearly the same 
proportion of alloy was found in a common two-edged axe dug at a depth of three 
and a quarter feet, and therefore in the remains attributed to a Greek colony. Dr. 
Percy analysed, with the following results, the handle of a bronze vase and a 
Sword : 

Copper (mean) . 

Tin (mean) 



86-36 
1306 



9942 

The specific gravity (at 60° F.) was 

8*858. The extreme proportions of the 

alloy in other articles were 1028 tin to 

89*69 copper (a usual ratio in ancient 

bronzes '), and 0*09 tin to 98*47 copper, 

the latter being almost pure. 

Mongez, of the Institut, describing a 

bronze Sword found in France, gives the 

proportions as 8747 per cent, of copper 

to 12*53 of tin. Analyses of Greek 

bronzes in the British Museum yielded 

87*8 per cent copper to 1213 tin. A 

bronze knife has been found in the 

Palafittes (Pile-villages) of Neuch^tel, 

Switzerland.' Worsaaee (* Primaeval 

Antiquities ') makes the Bronze Period 

in Denmark and Northern Europe begin 

about B.C. 500 to 600, and last some 
1,100 years. It is not found among the Normans. But it was developed in 
Ireland and Scotland, in China and Japan, in Mexico and in Peru : Cieza de Leon 
notes the admirable bronze work of the Ynkarial empire. 

A Peruvian chisel, analysed by M. Vauquelin, contained 0*94 copper to o*o6 tin. 
In other tools the proportion of the latter metal varied from two to four, six and 
even seven per cent As a rule the people used only half the proper proportion of 



) 



■ 



Fig. 83. — Bronzb Knifb. 
FROM THE PiLB -Villages 
OF NbuchAtku 

(Half-size.) 



Fig. 84. — Peruvian Knife. 
Metal Blade, secured in 
A Slit in the Haft by 
STRONG Cotton Twine. 



> Schliemann*s Troy^ p. 361 (London: Murray, 

1875). 

« Sir W. Gell found the bronze nails in the 

* Treasury of Atreus * composed of 12 tin to 88 copper. 



The Trojan battle-axes, according to Dr. Schliemann, 
yielded only 4, 8, and 9 per cent, of the former metal. 
" According to Helbig, the Palafittes and Terra- 
mare villagers had spears but not Swords. 



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PROPORTIONS OF ALLOYS, 83 

tin, which they called Chayantanka — a name suggesting the Old-World * Tanuk.' 
Humboldt mentions a cutting tool found near Cuzco with ninety-four per cent, 
of copper and six of tin. Rivero (i. 201) notices in Peru brass (?) hammers 
and bellows-nozzles, axes, adzes, bill-hooks, and other tools, of bronze as well as 
copper. The Mexicans cast their tin ingots in T-shape. The Peruvians hardened 
copper also with silver for quarrying-tools and crow-bars. Velasco (ii. 70) tells us 
that when the Ynka Huasca was being led to prison by order of his brother, a 
woman secretly gave him a bar of metal, * silver with bronze, brass, or an alloy of 
silver, copper, and tin ' (Bollaert, p. 90) ; by means of this he cut through the jail 
wall during the night. Hutchison (ii. 330) mentions a buckler from Ipijapa in 
Ecuador, and Ewbank (p. 454) notices an old Peruvian bronze knife.' 

The admirable bronzes of China and Japan are well known in the English 
market, and Raphael Pumpelly,* who studied direct from the native workmen, has 
printed interesting notes on the ornamental alloys, or Mokume, applied to Swords 
and other articles. Damask-work is produced by soldering alternately thirty to forty 
sheets of rose-copper, silver, shakdo (copper one to gold ten per cent), and gui ski 
bu ichi (silver and copper). The mass is then cut into deep patterns with the 
reamer. An alloy of silver (thirty to fifty per cent, of copper) produces the favourite 
tint, a rich grey colour, and this becomes a bluish black like niello by being boiled 
after polishing in a solution of sulphate of copper, alum, and verdigris. Dr. Percy 
(p. 340) describes the liquation of argentiferous copper in Japan.* 

We owe to Dr. George Pearson * sundry experiments in alloys, which first de- 
termined that the norm of the Old World and the best proportion for weapons and 
tools are one tin to nine copper. 

Fusing the metals, he found : 

I tin : 20 copper (5 per cent.) produces a dark-coloured bronze with the red 
fracture of the pure metal. 

I tin : 1 5 (6 J per cent.) gives a stronger alloy and obliterates the colour. 

I tin : 12, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 gradually increases hardness and brittleness. 

I tin : 2 makes a mixture almost as brittle as glass. 

The following table * shows the alloys now in common use, and the purposes to 
which they are applied : 



. Cannon, statues, machine brasses. 
. * Gun-metal * proper (cannon). 
. * Gun-metal,* machinery bearings. 

* For the tin-ore of Peru see Ethnolog, Journal^ « M.D., F.R.S., 'Observations on some Metallic 
vol. Ixx. pp. 258-261. Rivero, p. 230, and Garcilasso, Arms and Utensils, with Experiments to determine 
vol. i. p. 202. their Composition.' Royal Soc. London, June 9, 

« Amer, Joum, of Science^ 6fc, v. 42; July 1866. 1796. PhUosophiccU Transactions, 

• From descriptions and drawings by Mr. J. H. * Taken from Dr. Evans {Bronu Impl, 6*f . chap. 
Godfrey, Mining Engineer-in-Chief to the Imperial xxi.). He compiled it from Martineau & Smith's 
Government of Japan. Hardware Trade Journal (April 30, 1 879). 



Tin 


Copper 


Per cent Copper 


II 


108 


= 9076 


II 


99 


= 90 


II 


84 


= 84*44 



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84 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



Tin 


Copper 


Per cent. Copper. 




II 


72 


= 86-75 . 


. Harder composition. 


11 


6o 


= 84-50 


. Not malleable. 


II 


44 


= 80 


. Cymbals, Chinese gongs. 


II 


48 


= 8135 . 


. Very hard, culinary vessels. 


II 
12 


361 
36/ 


_ (76-691 
I 75 00 J 


. *Bell-metaL' 


II 


24 


= 68-57 . 


. Yellowish, very hard, sonorous. 


II 


4 


= 26-66 


. Very white,* specula.* 



The most popular alloy of copper, next to bronze, is brass, which is harder and 
wears better than the pure metal. Originally, as now, it was a mixture of copper 
and zinc, popularly called spelter (old speautre^ speauter, spiauter, spialter)} The 
proportions greatly varied, one part of the latter to two of the former being the 
older ratio, and the density increasing with the amount of copper from 8-39 
to 856. 

Beckmann tells us, in his valuable * History of Inventigns,' * * in the course of 
time an ore which must have been calamine (carbonate of zinc) or blende* 
(sulphuret of zinc), was added to copper, and gave it a yellow colour. The addition 
made it harder, more fusible and sonorous, easily subject to the lathe, more eco- 
nomical to work, and a worse conductor of heat than the pure metal.' We have 
few specimens of old art-works in * brass ' proper, although zinc was discovered by 
analysis in an ancient Sword, chiefly copper.® Gibel assures us that zinc occurs 
only in Roman alloys, the bronze of the Greeks containing nothing beyond copper, 
tin, and lead. The Romans also could varnish or lacquer brass, but it is not known 
whence they derived the art. Percy notes (p. 521) that brass was produced * early 
in the Christian era, if not before its commencement.* He quotes in proof a large 
coin of the Cassia Gens (B.C. 20) which contained copper 82-26 and zinc I7*3i; a 
Vespasian (Rome, A.D. 71), an imperial Trajan (Caria, circ. A.D. no), a Geta (Carian 
Mylasa, A.D. 189-212), a Greek Caracalla (a.d. 199), and many others. In modem 
times zinciferous ore was imported by the Portuguese from the East a century 
before it was common throughout Europe.^ In the early seventeenth century the 
Dutch captured one of their craft laden with spelter, and the secret became known. 
Bishop Richard Watson says (1783) the cargo was calaem, * which he connects 
with * calamine ' : the latter, like the German Galtneiy derives from cadmia. 

Amongst the modems (bs gave rise to airain. The French leton^ laton^ latton^ 



* Wilkinson remarked that the Egyptian propor- 
tions of half tin and half copper were whitish. 

' Lord Rosse, in casting specula, preferred using 
copper and tin in their atomic proportions, or 68*21 
per cent, copper to 31-79 per cent. tin. 

* Speltrum was introduced by Boyle. During the 
last century much zinc was imported from India 
(possibly supplied by China), and was called tutenag. 

* Bohn's Trans, ii. 32-45. The learned German 
begins by stating that zinc was not known to the 



Greeks, Romans, and Arabs, and then proceeds to 
prove that it was. The word * zinc * (from zenken or 
zacken., nails, spikes ?) first occurs in the works of the 
latro-chemist, Paracelsus, who died in A.D. 1541. 

* Blende is a generic word, from blenden, to 
dazzle. 

• Mongez, AfJm, de Plnstitut, 

' At Goslar, however, according to Lohnriss, brass 
was made in A.D. 161 7. 



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ORICHALCUM. 



85 



or laiton {cuivre jaune) ; the Italian lattone^ lottone, and lastly ottone^ and the 
Spanish lata and latotty German Latun^ and English latten (thin sheet brass), the 
latoun of Chaucer (* Pardoner's Prologue/ 64), are either from luteunty yellow 
(metal), or from the plant luteum {Reseda luteola)^ used to stain chrysocolla.' Our 
brass is probably the Scandinavian bras, cement; and the German Mosch, 
Meishy and Messingy from misclienz=zniiscere? 

It may be advisable to notice the opu%aKKov^ of the Homerids and Hesiod, 
which Strabo also calls yftevSapyvpos (false silver), and aurichalcuniy and which the 
perverse ingenuity of commentaries has made so mysterious.* In the poetic phase, 
which loves the vague, this ' mountain-copper ' was a mythic natural metal, ranking 
between gold and silver, and chimerical as was the clialcolibanon * of the Apocalypse 
(1. 15, ii. 18). The name does not occur in Pindar or the Dramatists. Plato (the 
* Critias,* § ix., treating of Atlantis,® America) makes oreichalc, * now known only 
by name,* the most precious metal after gold. Pliny (xxxiv. 2) tells us truly 
enough that aurichalcum no longer exists. 

The next application of the word was to ruby copper (?), a suboxide whose 
beautiful crystals are formed in the natural state. Pollux and Hesychius the gram- 
marian (a.D. 380) define it as copper (;faX/cw) resembling gold ; and Cicero puts 
the question whether, if a person should offer a piece of gold for sale, thinking he 
was disposing of only a piece of orichalcum, an honest man ought to inform him 

* Pliny, xxxiii. 27. The solder {x9^^^^ ^^^ 
«c<{AAa, glue, or K6KKt\fns) is attributed by Herod, 
(i. 25) to Glaucus of Chios, a contemporary of 
Alyattes. The word kdlUsis is variously rendered 
'soldering,* 'brazing,* 'welding,* and 'inlaying.* 
KoUesis was used to agglutinate metals, and treated 
with a peculiar alkali (Pliny, xxxiii. 24). The ' gold 
glue* {chrysocolla) is usually understood to be a 
hydrosilicate of copper; not to be confounded with 
the x/'vtreJKoA.Xa or borax. The Mycenian goldsmiths 
soldered with the help of borax (borate of soda): 
Professor Landerer, of Athens, found this salt on an 
old medal from yEgina. It was called in the Middle 
Ages, Borax Venetus, because imported by the 
Venetians from Persia; and it is theTinkal of modem 
India. According to Pliny, lead cannot be soldered 
without tin, or tin without lead, and oil invariably 
must be used. Later usage substituted for the latter 
colophonium and other resins : we now solder by 
means of electricity. The same writer makes Nero 
use chrysocolla-powder (a siliceous carbonate of 
copper, a kind of blue-stone which would turn green 
by exposure to damp) for strewing the circus, to give 
the course the colour of his favourite faction, the 
Frasine (green). 

* The Germans, who delight in German deriva- 
tives for European words, would find kiton^ &c., not 
in luteum^ but in lothen — Ko unite. There is little 
doubt, however, that the first English manufactory of 
calamine brass at Esher, in Surrey, was set up in the 
seventeenth century by Demetrius, a German. In 



Grimm's Dictionary ^ as noticed by Demmin (chap. i. ), 
bronze is erroneously called messing (brass), 

' Derived from £/>ot, ohfio^ (mountain), or from 
*Of>c<of, the discoverer. Metallic names in Greek 
are mostly masculine ; in Latin and modem usage, 
neutral. OreichcUcum or aurichalcum^ a hybrid 
word, became cmrochalcum in the ninth century : 
the last conruption (middle of the sixteenth century) 
was archcU. 

< DeTOrichalque. J. P. Rossignol (Av. cit,), 

* Some translate this word * yellow frankincense * 
(Xitfayof) colour ; others derive it from A(tfayof, the 
Lebanon, and make it male, argurolibanusy while 
Uucolibanus (white) was female. Finally, the word 
was explained by the old interpreters to be^^pc^ 
XoAjcos >» brass of Mount (Lebanon). 

• The tradition of Atlantis, a middle-land in the 
Atlantic, has strong claims to our acceptance. The 
identity of the site with the * Dolphin's Ridge,* a 
volcanic formation, and the shallows noted by H.M.S. 
•Challenger,' have been ably pleaded in Atlantis 
(Ignatius Donnelly; London: Sampson Low, 1882). 
Perhaps we may trace the vestiges in Saint Paul's 
Rocks, the remarkable group of rocky islets situate 
in the equatorial mid-Atlantic. Mr. Darwin supposed 
the group to be an isolated example of non-volcanic 
oceanic insularity; but Prof. Renard finds the 'balance 
of proof decidedly in favour of the volcanic origin of 
the rock.* It will be remembered that Atlantis was 
dismembered by earthquakes, eruptions, and subsi- 
dence. 



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86 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

that it was really gold, or might fairly buy for a penny what is worth a thousand 
tifnes as much} Buffon compares it with tombac, or Chinese copper containing 
gold.* Beckmann (s. v. * Tin ') notes aurichalcunt or Corinthian brass in Plautus, 
* Auro contra carum.' Festus speaks of * orichalcum (copper), stannum (zinc or 
pewter ?), cassiterum (tin), and aurichalcum (brass).' The same signification occurs 
in Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (fourth century) ; in Primasius, Bishop of African 
Adrumetum (sixth century), and in Isidore, Bishop of Seville (seventh century). 
Albertus Magnus (thirteenth century), the Dominican monk, in treating * De 
Natura et Commixtione iEris,' describes how cuprum became aurichalcum, 

Strabo is mysterious. In one place he tells us that the Cyprian copper alone 
produces the Cadmian stone, copperas-water, and oxide of copper. In another 
(lib. xiii.) he says, * There is a stone near Andeira which, being burnt, becomes 
iron. It is then put into a furnace, together with some kind of earth,* when it (the 
stone } the earth } or both ?) drops or distils a yltevSdpyvpos (mock silver, zinc .^), 
which, with the addition of copper, produces what is called t/ie mixture, and 
which some term oreichalcum' Pseudargyros, also found in the neighbourhood of 
Tmolus, would here seem to mean zinc or Cadmia fossilis (natural calamine or 
carbonate of zinc). Pliny (xxxiv. 22) confuses with cadmia, furnace calamine, and 
a particular ore of copper opposed to calchitis. When Dioscorides (v. cap. 84) 
seems to allude to artificial or furnace-calamine, an impure oxide of zinc, he may 
mean the more modem tutiya (Avicenna), toutia, thouthia,^ cadmie des foumeauXy 
or tutty. Reduced to powder, and mixed with an equal quantity of wetted charcoal 
by way of fondant or flux, it is melted with copper to form brass. The Avocat de 
Launey (1780) and Bishop Watson both agree that Strabo's orichalcum is brass. 

Lastly, aurichalcum was made synonymous with electrum, natural or artificial. 
The word "^WzKTpos^ is popularly derived from Helios, as rivalling the sun in 

* Quoted by Percy from Watson's Chemical in the East as a flux from time immemorial. The 
Essays {\v, p. 85, 1786). 'dropping* or * distilling * {per descensum) must allude 

* The artificial mixture of copper (four fifths) and to a distillatory or condensing apparatus, and the 
gold (one-fifth) was called pyropus (Pliny, xxxiv. 2), * false silver' cannot be mercury, lead, or tin. 

from its fiery red tint ; it was also made of gold * Hence tutaneg and tutatugo, which sometimes 

and bronze, and termed chrysochalcos, * the king of meant an alloy of tin and bismuth. M. Polo (i. 21) 

metals.' ^s carinthiacum (Pliny, xxxiv. 3), or Corin- describes * tutia ' as very good for the eyes ; and his 

thian brass, used for mirrors, composed of copper, notice of it, and of spodium, reads, according to 

silver (steel? zinc?), and gold, was more valuable Colonel Yule, almost like a condensed translation of 

than gold. According to Pausanias (ii. 3, § 3), this Galen's pompholyx, produced from cadmia or carbo- 

malleable and ductile metal was tempered in the nate of zinc ; and spodos, the residue of the former, 

Fountain of Pyrene. The vulgar legend, refuted by which falls on the hearth {De Simp, Med, p. ix). 

Pliny, who tells the tale (xxxiv. 6), dates it from the Matthioli makes pompholyx commonly known in the 

days of Mummius (B.C. 146). A medal of Corinthian laboratories by the Arabic name *tutia.' The *tutia' 

brass was analysed by the Due de Luynes. Pliny imported into Bombay from the Gulf is made from an 

(xxxiv. 3) mentions three kinds, candidum, luteum, argillaceous ore of zinc, moulded into tubular cakes, 

and /tepattzon (liver-colour), of equal quantities of and baked to a moderate hardness, 

metal : this probably resembled our own alloys. * Masc. and fem. ; the neut. ^X^icrpov is the 

Beckmann {sub voc. * Zinc ' and * Tin ') gives a list of purest form. Dr. Schliemann, noticing that it also 

these and other compositions, Mannheim gold, Dutch means * amber' {Afycena, p. 204), derives it from 

gold. Prince's metal, Bristol brass, &c, « eleky signifying resin in Arabic (?), and probably 

* Possibly the Armenian bole (Bol-i- Armani), used also in Phoenician (?).' He found earrings of electrum 



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ORICHALCUM. 87 

sheen. According to Lepsius it is the * usem '-metal of Thutmes III. ; Brugsch 
(i. 345) understands by *usem' brass, and thinks Asmara or Asmala equivalent 
to the Hebrew hasmal or haskmal=electrum. In Bunsen (v. 757) Kasabet and 
Kakhi are brass {aurichalcum), and Khesbet is a metal connected with Kassiteros 
= tin. The alloy was known to Hesiod (* Scut' 142) and to the * Odyssey ' * (iv. 73), 
not to the * Iliad.* Sophocles (* Antig.* 1037) applied * Sardian electrum ' to gold, not 
to silver. Herodotus (iii. 115), in the historic age (B.C. 480-30), gives the name of 
the mythical metal to the ' tears of the Heliades,* which the Latins called succinum 
{succum), the Low- Latins ambrutn, the Arabs anbar, and we Amber. Pliny 
(xxxiii. 23), repeated by Pausanias (v. 12, § 6), notes two kinds, natural (*in all 
gold ore there is some silver ' ^) and artificial ; in the latter the proportion of silver 
must not exceed one-fifth. The staters of Lydian Croesus, held by the Greeks to 
be the most ancient of coins, were, according to Bockh, of electrum, three parts 
gold and one part silver. Lucian applies the term to glass {vaXosi) ; and, lastly, it 
was taken for brass and confounded with aurichalcum.^ 

I would suggest that this aurichalcum might also be the * Dowris bronze ' of 
Ireland, so called because first observed at Dowris, near Parsonstown, King's 
County. Wilde (p. 360) supposes with others that the gold-coloured alloy depended 
upon the admixture of a certain proportion of lead, and compares it with the Cyprus 
copper termed by the Romans Coronarium (used for theatrical crowns), which was 
coated with ox-gall.^ Of this or molu there arc many articles in the Dublin 
Museum, preserving their fine golden-yellow lustre : they had probably been 
lacquered or varnished like modern brasses ; and the patina might be some gum- 
resin. When much tarnished, they were cleaned by holding over the fire, and 
then by dipping in a weak solution of acid, as is done with modem castings. Two 
specimens, a Sword and a dagger-blade, were analysed (pp. 470, 483), and proved to 
contain copper 8767 to 9072, tin 8-52 to 8*25, lead 387 to 0*87, with a trace of 
sulphur in the Sword.* The specific gravities were 8*819 to 8*67 5. In a spear-head 
(p. 512), besides copper, tin, and lead, iron 0*31 and cobalt 0*09 were found. 

There were other alloys of which we read but know little ; such were the 
<BS (Bgineticuniy demonnesiumy and nigrum ; the ces deliacum^ whose secret was 

in the so-called * Trojan Stratum,* 30J feet below the pale-yellow or amber-coloured alloy of gold and 

surface {Troy^ p. 164). The guanin or gianin of the silver, gave a name to the gum amber. 

Chiriquis was an aururet (electrum) of 19*3 per cenU , ^his text, slating a truth concerning native gold, 

of pure gold, with specific gravity 11-55. The tom^ ^v.^^^^ amongst many that the ancients knew the 

bac or tombag of New Granada, used for statuettes, ^^^^ ^, separation, of metals. It has been vehe- 

was also a gold of low standard : 63 gold, 24 silver, ^^^^^^ doubted whether they could mineralise the 

9 copper. Usually * tombac ' applies to an aUoy like ^j^^^ ^^^j. ^^at is, convert it to sulphide and allow 

Mannheim gold ; the manufacture was introduced ^^ „^^ y^ subside. 

into Birmingham, still its chief seat, by the Turner .n-i , 1 o-j jtv 

, ., ^ ■ Rossignol quotes Zonaras, Suidas, and John 

family, a.d. 1740. ^ ,. . ^^ ^ ^. . .,. •' 

, '* , , , , . 11 . 1 ^ J Pediasimus to prove this position. 

> * Elektron,' however, is generally translated ^ '^ 

« amber*; and it maybe the har/ax, or drawer, for * ^^e now lacquer with shell-lac dissolved in 

it occurs in the same verse with ivory. Amber beads P'oof-spirit and coloured with * dragon's blood.* 
and weapon-handles were amongst Dr. Schliemann's * The lead was found in even larger proportions, 

finds. Rossignol (p. 347) supposes that electrum, the See chap, xiiu 



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88 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



lost in Plutarch's day, and the TapTi]aa-ios xo^^fcos ' from Southern Spain, probably 
shipped at Gibraltar Bay. Ollaria or pot-copper (brass) contained three pounds of 
plumbum argentarium (equal parts of tin and lead) to one hundred pounds of 
copper, ^s caldarium could only be fused. Finally, ^^t:^«/n/w (Greek-colour) 
was mould or second-hand copper {/ormalis seu collectaneus) with ten per cent of 
plumbum nigrum (lead) and five per cent, of silver lead (argen- 
tiferous galena T). 

Metal, when first introduced, must have been rare and 
dear ; the large modem Sword, axe, or mall would hardly have 
been imitated in copper, bronze, or iron. The earliest attempts 
at developing the celt ' would have produced nothing more artful 







Fig. 85.— Oldest 
Form (?). 



Fig. 86.— Metal Celts. 



Fig. 87.— Knife Found at 
RAalon (Hautes Alpbs). 

Half-size. It greatly re- 
sembles the broiue knife 
from the Palafittes of Ncu- 
chStel, figured by Desor. 
The Swiss knife, however, 
has a tooth at the edge, 
near the hollow. 



than a cutting and piercing wedge of the precious substance (fig. 85). As smelting 
and moulding improved, the pointed end would develop into the knife, the dagger, 
and the Sword ; and the broad end would expand to the axe. This composite 
weapon, uniting the club with the celt or hand-hatchet, and appearing in Europe 
with the beginning of the Neolithic period, plays a remarkable part in history. 



* In my commentary on Camoens {Camoens: his 
Life and his Lusiads)y and again in To the Gold 
Coast for Gold (\. 17), I have attempted to identify 
Western Tarshish or Tartessus with Carteia in the Bay 
of Gibraltar. Newton makes Melcarth *King of 
Carteia'; but the word may mean either * city-king' 
{Afalik-el-Karyai\ or * earth-king' {Malik-el-Arz), 

' The well-known anthropologist, M. G. de 
Mortillet, holds that the oldest type of bronze celt in 



France, Switzerland, and Belgium, is that with 
straight flanges at the sides. This was followed by 
the celt with transverse stop-ridge, by the true winged 
tool, by the socketed adaptation, and, lastly, by the 
simple flat tool wanting rib or flange, wing or socket, 
and formed of pure copper as well as of bronze. 
Archaeologists usually determine the last form to be 
the earliest ; but M. de Mortillet judges otherwise 
from the conditions under which the finds occur. 



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THE CELT AND THE SWORD. 



89 



ancient, mediaeval, and even modern ; whilst its connection with the Sword is made 
evident by the ' glaive.' * The expansion of the edge and of the flanges developed 
two principal forms. For cutting wood the long-narrow was found most service- 
able : where brute force was less required, the weapon became a broad blade with 
a long crescent-shaped edge. 

The Akhu or war-axe was, as we might expect, known to ancient Egypt in early 
days, and became an objet de luxe, A gold hatchet and several of bronze were 
found buried as amulets in the coffin of Queen Askhept, the ancestress of the 
Eighteenth Dynasty. Again, a bronze weapon occurred with a mummied queen of 
the Seventeenth Dynasty (b.C. 1750). Useful in war, the implement, probably when 



>l\-'h 




Fig. 88.- The Glaive. 



Fig. 89. - Egyptian Axes of Bronze. 



in the stone period, rose to be a symbol of the Deity : hence, doubtless, the Mches 
votives of the later Bronze Age without edge to serve for work or weapons, and 
intended only for religious use. The two-headed weapon was that outward and 
visible sign of Labrandian Jove, so called from the \afipa, which in the Lydian 
tongue was synonymous with 7ri\s/cv9. The emblem appears on the medals of 
three Carian kings, the most notable being Mausolus (or MausoUus), dating from 
B.C 353. According to Plutarch (De PythicB Oraadis) the Tenedians * took the axe 
from their crabs, . . . because it appears that the crabs alone have the figure of the 
axe in their shells.' Hence the double-headed weapon on the coins of Tenedos is 



* This weapon {gladius) is a Sword-blade, double- 
edged or single-edged, straight or curved, and 4-9 
inches long, much used in the fourteenth and fifteenth 



centuries. It originated from the old practice of 
binding the sickle, scythe, axe, hatchet, or Sword to 
the end of a pole and thus forming a pike. 



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go THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

a votive or sacrificial, rather than a warlike, symbol. The Tenedian Apollo also 
held the axe, which some regarded as the symbol of Tennes. Aristotle and others 
maintained that a certain King of Tenedos decreed that adulterers should be slain 
with the axe, and his carrying out the law upon his own son gave rise to the proverb, 
TspiSios 7ri\e/cv9f denoting a rough-and-ready way of doing business. 

Although the itsKskvs is mentioned by Homer (* II.' and * Od.*) as a weapon as 
well as a tool, the Greeks, like the Assyrians, did not much affect it. The Romans, 
who worshipped Quirinus in spear-shape, bound the securis in a bundle of rods 
{fasces)^ bore it as a badge of office, and placed it on consular coins. The weapon was 
lowered in the salute, and thus, perhaps, arose our practice of dropping the Sword- 
point, which is unknown to the East. The axe with expanded blade upon Trajan's 
column is in the hands of a workman. Possibly the classics of Europe despised 
the weapon because it was proper to the securigera catervce of the effeminate East. 
As early as the days of Herodotus (I. chap. i. 215) the aa^apis, the Armenian sacr, 
and the Latin securis, made either of gold or chalcos, was the favourite weapon 
of the Amazon ^ and the Massagetae ^ horseman. In Ireland the axe plays a part in 
the tales of Gobawn Saer : this goblin-builder completed the dangerous task of 
finishing off a royal roof of cutting wooden pegs, throwing them one by one into 
their places, and driving them in by flinging the magic weapon at each peg in due 
succession. 

From Egypt the axe passed into the heart of Africa. Here it still serves, 
before and after use, as a medium of exchange ; and this circulation from tribe to 
tribe explains the various forms that have overspread the Dark Continent. The 
Nile Valley again sent it eastward through Hittite-land and Assyria to Persia and 
India, where the crescent-shaped battle-axe has long been a favourite. The varieties 
of form and colour are noticed by Duarte Barbosa ^ when describing the * Moors ' of 
Hormuz Island. It was adopted by the Turkish horseman, who carried it at his 
saddle-bow. Klemm (* Werkzeuge und Waffen ') notices that it was a favourite 
Scandinavian weapon slung by a strap to the back ; and most of the deaths 
recounted in * Burnt Njal * are the result of it The Norman long-hefted axe is 
common on the Bayeux tapestries. A Scandinavian war-axe of the early seven- 
teenth century was found on the battle-field of Norwegian Kringelen ; the handle 
is recurved so as to fit the back socket In Germany it was generally used during 
the fifteenth century ; in England during the sixteenth ; and in the seventeenth it 
became obsolete throughout Europe, except among the Slavs and the Magyars. 

* The Amazons of the Mausoleum (Newton, I/a/i- Strabo (xi. 8) connects the Massagetae (Goths) with 
carnassuSf p. 235) are armed with axe, bow, and the Saca (Saxons), and Major Jahn derives Saca (the 
Sword ; the Greeks with javelins and Swords. Skaka of the Hindus) from Saighead ^ Sagitta, The 

• The Massagetae (greater Jats or Goths) are op- term * Saxones * was later than the age of Tacitus, and 
posed to the Thyssa (or lesser) Getje, and both used we first find it in the days of Antonmus Pius, 
the sagaris. But while some authors translate the *Brevis gladius apud illos {^Saxones) Saxo vocatur* 
word securisy others call it a *kind of Sword,* and suggests that the 5^ajr was connected with the race of 
others confuse it with the iuciydxriSf the actnaces old ( Trans, Anthrop, InstU, May 1880). 

which the Greek mentions separately (iv. 62, viii. 67). * Loc, cit, p. 43. 



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THE AXE AND THE SWORD, 



91 



The German processional axe shows its latest survival ; blade and handle are of 
one piece of wood, ornamented with the guild-devices, and so modified that the 
original weapon can hardly be recognised. Similarly the Bergbarthe (mine-picks) 
of the German Bergmanner (miners) were used, according to Klemm, for the de- 
fence of cities, notably of Freiberg in 1643 ; and, made of brass as well as iron, they 
are still carried in State processions. The axe, like the spear, demarked boundaries. 
The charter given by Cnut (Canute) to Christ Church, Canterbury, grants the 
harbour and dues thereof on either side as far as a man standing on deck at flood- 







u 



Fic. 90.— Irish Battlb-Axb. 



Fig. 91.— Axe used by Bruce. Fig. 93.— German Processional Axe. 



tide could cast a taper-axe, and the custom of throwing the tool to mark boundaries 
has been retained in some parts of the country to our day. It was with a battle- 
axe that the Bruce of Bannockburn clove the skull of an English champion to the 
chin. Monstrelet tells us that during the wars of Jeanne d'Arc (Patay fought in 
A.D. 1429) the English carried hatchets in their girdles. 

The Axe ' was adopted by the Franks, as well as by the Scandinavians and the 
Germans, especially the Saxons. Hence the two-edged axe when affixed to long 
staves, forming a spear, became the Icelandic Hall-bard * (hall-axe ?), the Teutonic 

* Egypt, akhu^ Lat. ascia^ Germ. Axt, The oldest form is * aks * {securis)^ the bipennis, * dversahs,'' and the 
dolabmm * bart^,^ In Lower Saxon axt is * exe,* a congener of our * axe.* 
' The word is variously written and explained. 



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92 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



Alle-barde (* all-cleaver '), and the 'Pole-axe/ called from Poland (=Polje, the 
plain-country). This modification was universal in Northern Europe during the 
first ages of Christianity. The earliest shape (middle fourteenth to early sixteenth 
centuries) was a broad and massive axe, mounted on a thick and solid spear ; in 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the blade became more slender and hollow- 




FiG. 93.— Halcarps. 

edged, and the head longer and more taper. The Swiss introduced the Halbert to 
France in the middle fifteenth century : in the seventeenth century it was conven- 
tionalised, the axe resumed its original aspect, and the spear grew to leaf-shape. 
In this form it was retained by the subalterns and sergeants of the British army 
till abolished with the pig-tails of * Shaven England.' It is not wholly forgotten on 



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AXE AND SCYMITAR. 



93 



ceremonious occasions in certain European Courts, and during all its changes it has 
ever retained its cousinly likeness to the broadsword. 

I have shown how the stone celt might become a metal knife, and thence develop 




Fig. 94.— Halbards. 

into the straight Sword. By noting the modifications it is as easy to see that the axe 
might have produced the scymitar. The earliest form would be a broad lance-head 
inserted into a common club {a\ as is still practised in many parts of Africa. The 




Fig. 95>--«i ^' Bbchwana's Club Axr ; c. Thk Sams, Expandsd : d. The Same, Basbro ; /. Silspb or thb 
Basutos ; /. Horseman's Axr of thr Sixtrknth Crntury. 

next improvement {c) would convert the tool into an arm by increasing the cutting 
surface ; and another step {d) would make it lighter by reducing the blade to a 
triangle of mere barbs, -^. Then (e) we have the Khond or Circar battle-axe, and 



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94 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



the Silepe of the South African Basutos who, virtually discovered by Dr. Livingstone, 
have become so troublesome of late years.* This T-shaped blade, perpetuated in 
the * Balonette Gras,' was used in Switzerland and in Venice till the sixteenth 
century, according to Meyrick and Demmin. Afterwards the straight back next 
to the staff would be formed into two small and graceful crescents (/) ; and the 
weapon became far better fitted for the requirements of cavalry. This shape is 
world-wide, and was used in England temp, Elizabeth. A congener of the 
glaive was the Francisque d lance ouverte^ the broad-bladed 'taper-axe,' used 
for throwing as well as for striking. According to the Abb^ Cochet, this 





Fig. 97.- German Hatchet 

OF DroNZB PnEtOD. 




Fig. 96.— Hind(5 Hatchbt 
PROM Rajputana. 



Fig. 98.— I. BuKGUKDiAN Axb; 
8. Francisque or Taper Axb. 



Fig. 



% 



90.— Iron Scramasax 
(16 inches long). 



Fig. 100.— Scramasax 
(18 inches longX 



weapon took its name from the Franks. The Francisque is termed a ' defensive 
weapon ' in the illustrated treatise ' Armes et Armures.' * The Saxons preferred to 
It the Sahs, Seax or Scramasax-knife, similarly used. The Francisque is rare in the 
Saxon graves compared with the spear and knife, but it is more common than the 
Sword.* 

The Bill * (A.-S. byll, Irish biail, securis) was introduced into England temp. 



' A siUpe from the armoury of King Mosesh was 
shown at the National Exhibition amongst objects 
fifom Natal (Col. A. Lane Fox, Cat, p. 145). 

« Par Lacombe (Paris, Hachette, 1868). 

* I have again noticed the sahs^ uax, sax, and 
scramasax in chap. xiiL 

* Our ' bill ' is the German Betl, the securis, or axe. 



Both words appear to me congeners of the Greek 
$4\os, Sword or dart, showing a missile-age, from 
/ScUXciy, to throw; not, as Jahn thinks, from the 
Sanskrit dAtl. Robert Barret (1598) preferred the 
pike, although owning that the bill had done good 
service. Even of late years Messrs. John Mitchel 
and Meagher (*of the Sword ') advised the wretched 
Irish peasants to make pikes out of reaping-hooks. 



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THE BILL AND VOULGE, 



95 



Henry VI. about the fifteenth century, when it was allied in form to the Halbard. 
Skinner considers it a securis rostrata (beaked axe). It was long a favourite in 
Scandinavia, and the illustration represents the weapon of Gunnar, the Icelandic 
champion, which sang before battle, as also did the Sword of Sigurd. 

The glaive of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was followed by the Guisarme, 
Gisarme, or Bisarme. This long blade, with a slender spear-point projecting from 
the back, is still used by the Chinese ; and the Despots of Dahome borrowed it, like 
other quaint arms and customs, from Europe. The Voulgey an intermediate form of 




Fig. loi.— Gunnar's Bill. 



Fig. I02.— Voulges. 



the halbert and the glaive, and probably a descendant of the former, was a battle- 
axe much used by the Swiss in the fourteenth century. The war-scythe of the 
same period figured by Demmin, and the scythe-Sword — a formidable-looking, but 
unhandy weapon — were adopted by the Hungarian rebels as lately as in 1848. 
Allied with these mediaeval forms is a vast variety of shapes known as the Spetum 
(Spiedo or Spit), the Rongeur or Ranseur, and the military fork. They were pro- 
bably known to the Ancients, and reintroduced into Europe by the peasantry who, 
compelled hastily to arm themselves, would use the handy flails, sickles, and 
scythes. A well-arranged and complete collection is still wanted to show the links 
connecting them with a common prototype. 



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96 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

The interest of these weapons is chiefly connected with the various forms of 
curved broadsword. The leaf-shaped metal-blade for thrusting, which appears to 
be one of the earliest forms, and which is preserved by the Somal and other bar- 
barians, is, I have said, evidently a spear-head fixed in a wooden handle. 

Briefly to describe the Sword of the Early Bronze Age, during which, by the by, 
cremation became almost universal in Europe. The weapon is to a certain extent 
North European, and seems to have travelled up the valleys of great rivers : Den- 
mark has yielded two hundred and fifty to six Italian bronze blades.^ They are as 
a rule of fair length, averaging about seventy-five centimetres : the profile is either 
leaf-shaped, sub-leaf-shaped, or straight, ending in a bevelled point The hilt is of 
two kinds : either tanged or untanged : the tang is broad, long, and pierced, with 
one or more holes for riveting ; in this case the handle was of wood, bone, or 
horn. Many hefts, however, as will afterwards appear, are cast in a single piece 
with or without guard ; and the latter often disappears in a hollow triangular 
base, a crescent or horse-shoe containing the shoulders with the concavity of the 
arch towards the point ; this also served in many weapons to receive the rivets. 
The pommel is of various patterns, frequently a cone, oval, globe, or dome with 
steps or with melon-like ridges.* In others, especially amongst the old Kelts and 
Germans, it ended with a crutch or crescent whose cusps were, in the richer kinds, 
adorned with spirals. 

* Prehistoric Times, p. 20. The Dublin Museum contains 1,283 articles of the Bronze Age. 

* I assume as a type, the bronze Sword (Tafel iv. ) in Die Alterthiimer von HiiUstiUten^ Saltburgy 6v. 
by Friedrich Simony (Wien, 185 1). 



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97 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE PROTO-SIDERIC OR EARLY IRON AGE OF WEAPONS. 

* Of all metallurgical processes, the extraction of malleable iron may be regarded as amongst the most 
simple.'— Percy, Iron^ dr^r. p. 573. 

We now come to the King of Metals that * breaketh in pieces and subdueth all 
things ' ; the only ore friendly as well as fatal to the human form ; the most useful 
and the most deadly in the hand of man ' — Iron.* 

According to the Parian Chronicle (Arundelian Marbles), followed by 
Thrasyllus (Clemens Alex, in * Strom.'), and by a host of writers, iron-working was 
discovered in B.C. 1432 or 248 years before the Trojan war. The latter, a crucial 
date, is, as will appear, wholly undetermined ; the various authorities have made it 
range through nearly seven hundred years. But the life of Hellas is one great * appro- 
priation clause ' : the Greeks were doughty claimants, childish in their naivete of 
conceit ; they were burglars of others' wits (convey, the wise it call), and they 
made themselves do all things. Their legends, for instance, accredit *Glaucus the 
Chian ' with having invented the art and mystery of steel-inlaying. De Goguet 
(A.D. 1 761) tells us that the Phoenicians ranked amongst their oldest heroes two 
brothers who discovered iron-working ; the Cretans referred it to the oldest period 
of their history,' and the Idaean Daktyls learnt it from the 'mother of the 
gods.' Prometheus (in ^Eschylus) boasts of having taught mankind to fabricate 
all metals : he also wears an iron ring supposed to be a chain not an ornament ; 
and it possibly symbolises the union of fire and ore. The art of iron-working is 
referred, now to the Cyclopes, of Sicily, then to the Chalybes,^ who extended from 

* Pliny, xxxiv. 39. Callimachus {Hymn, in Jmf. 8) ; and was continued 

, Tu J r .1. v 1 .1. in the proverbial rgia xdwira tcduciara (Krete, Kappa- 

* The word comes from the root which gave the , . . i- ., . v n .i. n • .• 1 r 
tj . /. *!. T • I • ^ t^r • 1 docia, and Kilikia). Hence the syllogistic puzzle of 
Persian dA/i/f ; the Insh taran or yarann ; the Welsh ^ .... ,c • 1 • i .u ; .u r- . 

, . .LA . » ^ , . . 1 Eubulides : * Epiraenides said that the Cretans are 

hMm; the Armoncan f/a'«; the Goinic cisarni the ,. t- • • 1 • ^^ . r? • -j • 

T\ ' X. ' .u c J- u • .L ^. L • • J'ars : Epimenides is a Cretan : ergo^ Epimemdes is 

Danish tfrn; the Swedish tarn', the Cimhnc jara ; ,. * .. ^ . . v 1.- • 

., ^ E' ji-T.^ .L»a liar: crfro, the Cretans are not liars: ergo, Lpi- 

the G^xmxti Eisen, and the IjaXin fcrrum, with the • 1 • . i- » « » r 

T .. ^ ,. ,c, si T- . menides is not a liar, 

neo- Latin ferro, hurro (Span.), &c. From taran . „, . t,*. r^i. 1 u r t *• / i- -x • 

I A ' zr ' L \ * Chap. IV. The Chalybs of Justin (xliv. 3) is a 

also we denve /^or^ur^, harness. . , / ,, . //- i- v j.v 'r 

nver between the Ana (Guadiana) and the Tagus ; 

■ The unfortunate Cretans gained the name of called by Ptolemy and Martianus, YAKimov^ or 

*ever liars* (&«2 ifcOo-Tat) for telling what was probably KcUtiros. .^schylus alludes to the original Chalybes 

the truth. They showed in their island the grave of when he personifies the Sword as the * Chalybian 

Jupiter, who must have be^n originally some hero or stranger,' and in the same tragedy {^Seven against 

chief deified after his death— evidently one of the Tfubcs) he entitles it ' the hammer- wrought Scythian 

origins of worship. The evil report began with steel.* 

H 



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98 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

Colchis to Spain : Clemens (Alex.) refers the discovery of making malleable iron 
to the Noropes of Danubian Pannonia, who dwelt between Noricum (Styria) and 
Maesia ; and finally, to quote no more, Mr. J. Fergusson, a careful writer, tells us that 

* the Aryans (?) were those who introduced the use of iron, and with it dominated 
over and expelled (?) the older races.* 

Modern discovery has proved that the invention, and indeed the general 
adoption, of * Mars ' ( ^ ) dates from the very dawn of history ; and that it is a 
mere theory to assume everywhere preceding millennia of bone and stone, copper 
and bronze. It is clear, for instance, in Central Africa, where copper and tin were 
unprocurable, that man must first have used iron.* A good authority, Mr. St. 
John V. Day ^ (C.E.), who was in charge of iron works in Southern India, claims 
for iron — cast as well as wrought, and even for its carburet, steel — the credit of 
being * unquestionably the earliest of substances with which man was acquainted/ 
This writer, however, denies, contrary to all tradition, a * progressive rise in the 
quality of materials used by man ' : that is, from the soft and yielding to the hard 
and refractory. He holds that Man, once master of metallurgy, * would be better 
able to deal with the much more easily manipulated bones, stones, or wood.' He 
supposes all the metals, noble and ignoble, as well as gems and precious stones, 
to have become familiar amongst Eastern races, * whether they be Semitic, Aryan, 
Hamitic, Sporadic, or AUophyllian, by virtue of a civilisation due to a natural 
innate insight.' Hence he declares Egypt an enigma to those who accept the 
dictum of * man's gradual evolution from the condition of a savage, an ignoramus,' 
and he opines that this grim being is simply a retrograde.' 

These ideas trench upon old metallurgic superstitions and seem to run into 
extremes. We know nothing concerning the home of Proto-man, which is 
perhaps deep under the waters. Anthropologists, who locate him in Mesopotamia, 

* Aryaland ' (Central Asia), or Ethiopia, look only to the origin of the present 
species, and the historic cycle. Our studies, as far as they go, suggest that Man 
began in the Polar regions, and that in hoar antiquity each racial centre had its 
own material — wood and horn, bone and stone, copper, bronze, and iron.* 

* * To the abundance of iron we may attribute the the skeletons dug up at great depths, or found in 

fact that the Africans appear to have passed direct caves associated with the mammals which they de- 

from the stone implements, that are now found in the stroyed, that Man in prehistoric times was of a low 

soil, to those of iron, without passing through the physical, and therefore mental type. We shall be- 

intermediate bronze period which, in Egypt and other lieve the opposite view when we are shown ancient 

countries, intervened between the ages of stone and crania equal, if not superior, to those of the present 

iron.* — AnthropoL ColL pp. 128-134. day— relics that will revive the faded glories of 

« « The High Antiquity of Iron and Steel,' a valu- ' ^^^^^' ^^^°* ' ^^ * ^^^^f ,?^^-\ ^"^' "^^.^^i^e' 

able paper read before the Philos. Soc Glasgow, ^^ <=^«t ^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^eUeve in t/se dtxvts, m- 

printed in Iron (1875-76), and kindly sent to me by 'P*'^ ^"^ umnspired. 

the editor, Mr. Nursey ; also The Prehistoric Use of 4 p^j instance, in North-Westem Europe, the 

Iron and Steel {TmbneTy London, 1877), from which early iron age be^n about A.D. 250, according to 

Mr. Day has allowed me to make extracts. Konrad Englehardt (Denmark in the early Iron A^e, 

» The question is to be determined by facts, not P- 4» London, 1866), quoted by Mr. Day. 
theories. Hitherto we are justified in believing, from 



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METAL IN EGYPT, 



99 



For our first lesson in iron we must go back as usual to Kahi-Ptah (the Ptah- 
region), that Nile Valley which is the motherland of all science, of all art. Here 
Bunsen * provides us with the following table : 



Hieroglyphs i Phonetic Value 


Translation 


J.!. 


Bx 
Ba. 

Ba'a. 

Ba'aenpe (Benipe 
or Penipe). 

Bet 


Earth, Metal, Soul, 
Circle, Seed, Com. 

Iron. 

Iron, Earth. 
Iron. 
Iron. 



Mr. Day (who has drawn it up) observes that * BA ' ( Jl ) is a constant in 

the phonetic values assigned to the uncertain hieroglyphs for iron, and feels dis- 
posed to believe it synonymous with p^aX/coy, base metal in general. He would 
translate the Saidic 'BENIHE' and the Coptic ^HENinE' by * stone (BE) of 
(NI) sky or heaven (IIE) ' ; in fact, * sky-stone,' alluding to meteoric iron, probably 
the first utilised. Dr. Birch holds *BA' to be a general term for metal made 
particular, as in Greece, by prefixed adjectives (white, black, yellow) denoting the 
quality of the ore. And hence the determinative of * BA ' (metal, stone, or hard 
wood) is the cube or parallclogrammic block which denotes building and b'j'lding 
materials. 

Native iron may be distributed into two great divisions, extra-terrestrial and 
terrestrial. The former is known as meteoric or nickeliferous. Mr. Day (pp. 22- 
23) gives analyses of this form, and takes, rfrom Chladni ^ and others, a listr'of 
masses that fell in Siberia, Thuringia, and Dauphin^ ; in West African Liberia, 
and in American Sta. ¥i de Bogotd, and Canaan, Connecticut Though many 
trials have been made in working extra-terrestrial metal, all have hitherto failed ; 
the phosphorus, nickel and its alter egOy cobalt, render the forgings, in our present 
state of technology, too brittle for use. Terrestrial or telluric iron is again divided 
into two classes — the nearly pure ore and the native steel. According to the 
schedule of Rosset : 



* Egypt* s Place in Universal History^ vol. v. ; 
London, Longmans, 1867, with additions by Samuel 
Birch, LL.D. 

* When Laplace made meteorolites ejections from 



lunar volcanoes, Chladni suggested that they were 
masses of metallic matter, moving in irregular orbits 
through interplanetary, and possibly interstellar, 
space. 



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icx> THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

Iron is a metal not cast and malleable. 
Steel „ cast and malleable. 

Pig-iron „ cast and not malleable. 

That iron was common amongst the ancient Egyptians we may assume as 
proved. Mr. A. Henry Rhind, when opening the tomb of Sebau (nat B.C. 68), 
noted on the massive doors ' iron hasps and nails/ as lustrous and as pliant as 
on the day they left the forge.* Belzoni, who died in 1823, found an iron sickle 
under the feet of one of the Karnak Sphinxes dating from B.C. 600. In June 1837, 
Mr. J. R. Hill, employed by Colonel Howard Vyse, when blasting and excavating 
the Jfzeh ' Pyramid, came upon a piece of iron, apparently a cramp, near the 
channel-mouth of one of the air-passages : it had thus been preserved from rust, 
and its authenticity cannot be doubted. Some suggested that it was used for 
scraping and finishing ; others for finally levelling the faces of dressed stone, but 
it tapers off from the middle to an edsje on either side and it narrows at one end.* 
This relic can hardly be of later date than B.C. 4000-3600, when Khufu (Cheops) 
built his burial-place and inscribed in it his hieroglyphic shield* or cartouche 

( ©Vk— ^V j. Stowed away in the British Museum, it excited scant attention 

till Dr. Lepsius at the Congress of Orientalists (London, 1874), suggested that it 
was of steel. A trial was made (Sept. 18) ; it yielded readily to a few turns 
of the drill, and the surfaces of the hole showed the whiteness and the brightness 
of newly-cut malleable iron. Since that discovery, sacrificial iron knives have 
been found in the Nile Valley, despite the ready oxidation of the metal in a 
climate of the hot-damp category. In the Buldk Museum (Salle de TEst), with 
the wooden Swords, was a straight and double-edged iron blade that had two ribs 
running along its length. Another room showed a straight, double-edged, and 
round-pointed dagger of gilt iron. Of the latter weapon there are three fine 
specimens (Salle du Centre). 

The literature of Egypt abounds in allusions to the use of iron.^ The Rev. 
Basil H. Cooper* believes that Mibampes the * Iron King,' sixth successor of 

* This word b tortured by non-Orientalists into of metals in the painted tombs of Thebes, and the 

various ill-forms. The Arabs write it ^p^ (7/^;5), ^^"« (cyanus-colour) of the butcher's steel. The 

■^ ' history of this homely article is instructive. For 

and the Egyptians pronounce it G/zeA, not GkiuA, hundreds of years it retained, in England and else- 

* A full-sized drawing appeared in vol. vii. of where, its original shape, an elongated cone. At last 
Proceedings of the Phil, Soc, Gkxsgmu ; and was re- J^ome 'cute citizen had the idea of breaking the surface 
peated by Mr. Day in his book, PI. II. He also into <our edges, and of hardening it with nickel. The 
gives Belzoni's sickle, PI. I. simple improvement now fits it for sharpening every- 

. ,,Tt • •.• ^1. * rw, , r .1 o 1 J f thing from a needle to a razor : it thus frees us from 

» When visitmg the * Tombs of the Soldans,' ^,7 jit -j »i- u* iij j. 

^ . , . . ,- -,, , ,, / the * needy knife-gnnder,' who right well deserved to 

Cairo, I found a slab of blue basalt bearing the , ji.j-j j !i.-v*i-j 

.rvi-i- J i.i.iir r» be needy, as he disadomed everything he touched, 

cartouche of Khufu, used as a threshold for one of the . ^ '• .^ r ^l rr r ni j t ^ - tt r 

, ., ,. rru u . \ A Y. .1 J ^ Antiquity of the Use of Mitals^ especially Iron, 

buildings. The characters bad been partly erased ; ,l rr 1.- o /r j o^oi ai 

, ** . , . J r .1- 1 1^ . , among the Egyptians, p. i8 (London, i868). Also 

but the matenal was too hard for the barbarians who rr l j- n-.-. j c j j d 

\% A umA ' ueoer ate PrwrUat des Etsens oder der Bronze in 

had misused it. Ostasien, by Dr. M. MuUer ( Trans, Vienna Anthrop, 

* I have elsewhere noticed (chap. iv. ) the colours Soc, vol. ix. ). 



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IRON IN EGYPT. 



lOI 



primaeval Mena (circ B.C. 4560)/ bore on his cartouche the word * Benipe ' ; 
and that no less than three records ^ entitle him * Lover of Iron ' (i.e. the 
Sword) ; * thus attesting, not only the extreme antiquity of the use of iron, but 
unfortunately (?) of that most dreadful evil of all which are the scourges of 
humanity — war (?).* And so we see the nineteenth century repeating the Hero- 
dotian half-truth, * Iron has been discovered to the hurt of Man ' ; and looking only 

at one side of the question, the evils of War, without 
which, I repeat, strong races could not supplant the 
weaker to the general benefit of mankind. The Epos 
of Pentaur, the jovial temple scribe^ (circ. RC. 1350), 
mentions *iron' thrice; and Pharaoh Mene-Ptah II., 
whose * Sword gave no quarter,' had vessels of iron. 
In later hieroglyphic literature the notices become 
too numerous to justify quotation. 



Fic. 103.— Egyptian Sacrificial Knives (Iron). 



The old Egyptians, according to Plutarch,^ held iron to be the oariop 
Tv<f>(Svo9f or bone of Set ; whereas the aiSrfpirts \l0o^, or magnet, was that of his 
foe-god Horus, degraded to Charon in Greece and Rome. This siderite was 
known to the Hellenes in its religious aspect as 'HpaKksia \l0os or '^pdKT^tov, 
either from Heraclea-town or from Hercules (Pliny, xxxvi. 25). Siderite or load- 



' I assume Uiis date because it marks when the 
spring equinox (vernal colure) occuired in the Taurus- 
sign. The earliest of the six epochs proposed by 
Egyptologists is B.c. 5702 (Bockh), and the latest b 
B.C. 3623 (Bunsen) ; the mean being B.c. 4573, and 
the difference a matter of 2079 years (Brugsch, L 30). 

' The Table of Sakkarah (Memphis), found about 
the end of 1864 by the late Mariette Pasha, dates 
fiom Ramses the Great (thirteenth century B.C.), and 
makes Mibampes the first of his fifty-six ancestors. 
Na 2 is the new tablet of Abydos, discovered, also 
in 1864, by Herr Dummichen ; it enabled scholars to 
supply the illegible name in No. 3, the priceless Turin 
Papyrus, the hieratic Canon of the Ptolemies. Mir- 



bampes, Mirbapen, or Mi-ba of the monuments is 
called in Manetho * Miebides, son of Usarpha^dus ' 
(Corf s Fragments^ p. 112). 

* Of Ramses II., who, with his father Seti, repre- 
sents the Greek Sesostris, the Sesesu-Ra of the monu- 
ments. (Brugsch, Hist. ii. 53-62: see my chap, viii.) 
Prof. G. Ebers has made this Egyptian proto- 
Homerid the hero of his romance, Uarda (i.e. War- 
dah, * the Rose'). 

* De Isidt et Osiridt, He quotes Manetho the 
Priest, who wrote during the reign of the first 
Ptolemy, and who told unpleasant truths concerning 
Muses, the Hebrews, and the Exodus. 



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102 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



stone, termed * Magnet ' from its supposed discoverer, was also entitled * live iron/ 
and its wounds were supposed to be more deadly than those of the common ore. 

The Nile-dwellers had not far to go for iron, which abounds in the well-known 
Wady Hammdmdt, one of the earliest centres of Egyptian mining ; and, as Mr. Piazzi 
Smyth showed, it accumulates everywhere in the fissures of the flaky limestone : ' 
it is produced in Ethiopia (the Sudan and Abyssinia) ; and in Midian, where the 
old Kemites opened the copper mines, it appears in the shape of black sand and 
large masses of titaniferous ^ and other ores. The monuments (Kamak Table, 
&c.) specify, amongst objects of tribute, iron from the lands of the Thuhi * (* the 
fair people '), the Rutcnnu (Syrians and Assyrians), and the Asi (or rebels gene- 
rally ?) ; from these countries it was exported in the ore and in bricks and pigs. 
The tribute-tables of Thut-mes III. (B.C. 1600) mention : — 

One beautiful iron armour of the hostile king. 
One beautiful iron armour of the King of Megiddo. 
} lbs. weight, two suits of iron armour from Naharayn. 
Iron suits of armour (taken by the warriors), and 
Five iron storm-caps {J). 

Mr. Francis Galton ^ first discovered in the ancient copper-diggings of the 
so-called * Sinaitic ' peninsula, a blackish mass, not unlike iron-slag, which he con- 
jectured to date before Moses* days. A score of years afterwards (early 1873), 
Mr. Hartland^ examined the junction of the Wadys Kemch, Mukattab, and 
Maghdrah, and found the iron-ore imperfectly extracted : assays and analyses of 
the slags that lay in heaps about the ruined works produced fifty-three per cent, 
of metal. He determined that the mines at SerAbit El-Khadim had been con- 
structed on the principle of the Catalan (or rather the Corsican) forge ; ^ and he 
discovered near them a temple and barracks for the soldier-guards.' 



* The limestones of Camiola produce heaps of 
pisoliths, which require only smelting ; and hence, 
probably, the early Iron Age of Noricum and its 
neighbourhood. 

* They suggest the magnetic and titaniferous iron 
sands of Wicklow, of New Zealand, of Australia, and 
of a variety of sites mentioned in To the Gold Coast 
for Gold, ii. ill. 

» The Naphtuhim of Scripture. 

* Percys Metallurgy, p. 874, first edit. 

» Proc, Soc, Antiq, second series, vol. v., June 
1873. Mr. Hartland added rubbings of various 
Pharaohnic stones, hoping to * show how little the 
mind of civilised man has developed during 3,000 
years.* A pleasant lesson to humanity! But after 
all thirty centuries are a mere section of the civilisa- 
tion which began in Egypt. 

* The Corsican is simply a blacksmith's forge. 
The Catalan has a heavy hammer and blowing- 
machine ; if the trompe be used, a fall of water is re- 



quired for draught. The Stiickofen is a Catalan ex- 
tended upwards in the form of a quadrangular or cir- 
cular shaft, 10-16 feet high. 

^ It is to be noted that flint implements were 
found all about these works : Mr. Hartland brought 
home from them silex arrow-heads. The late 
lamented Professor Palmer observed them in other 
parts of the Pharan peninsula, and I made a small 
collection in Midian. In the Joum, of the Anthrop, 
Soc. 1879, I showed, following Mr. Ouvry, Sir John 
Lubbock, and others, that Cairo is surrounded by 
ancient flint -ateliers. M. Lartet explored them in 
Southern Palestine ; I picked them up near Bethle- 
hem ( Unexplored Syria, ii. 289). The Abbe Richard 
and others traced them at Elbireh (in the Tiberiad) ; 
between Tabor and the Lake ; and, lastly, at Galgal, 
where Joshua circumcised. Lastly, my late friend 
Charles F. Tyrwhitt- Drake, when travelling with me, 
came upon an atelier east of Damascus. I have 
noticed General Pitt-Rivers* great Egyptian discovery 
in chap, il 



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HEBREW IRON' AGE, 103 

It is hard to believe with Mr. Proctor that Abraham, a wandering Chalda^an 
Shaykh, taught the Egyptians astronomy, astrology, and arithmetic ; or with Mr. 
Piazzi Smyth, that Mclchiscdek, the petty chief of a village in Palestine, built the 
Pyramid. Yet it is only reasonable to suppose that the Israelites set out upon 
their exodus or exodi, for there were probably many, provided with some of the 
technological wisdom of the Egyptians. Joseph, according to Brugsch (* Hist.' I. 
chap, xii.), rose to the honour of Zaphnatpaneakh (Governor of the Sethroitic 
home), and Ro-hir or Procurator, under the Shepherd-kings or * Hyksos,' a word 
which he renders Hek-Shasu,' lord of the Shasu (Arabs) ; he makes the Pharaoh 
of the Oppression, Ramses II. (b.C. 1333-1300), and Mene-Ptah II. the Pharaoh 
of the Exodus (B.C. 1 300-1 266). The Pentateuch, whatever be its date, well 
knew the use of Barzil (^nn), the Chaldaean Parzil or Parzillu. According to Sir 
John Lubbock (* Prehistoric Man '), * iron ' is four times mentioned, and * brass ' 
(copper, bronze ?) thirty-eight times in * the Law.' * From other sources we gather 
that the metal was either T\\^ {ashiith, that is, *the worked,' from the rad. 
ashah\ or V^^'O {muzak, * the melted,' fused, cast ; from the root sak). The 
Lord threatens that He will make * the skies as iron and the earth as copper ' 
(Levit. xxvi. 19). In Deuteronomy (iv. 20), Egypt is compared with an iron 
furnace ; and mention is made of iron shoes (xxxiii. 25). Job includes among 
riches, cattle, silver, gold, brass (copper }\ and iron ; he tells us (xxviii. 2) that 
* iron is taken out of the earth and copper is molten out of the stone,' and he 
speaks of lithic writing (xix. 24), * graven with an iron style and lead in the rock 
for ever.' But commentators are not agreed about the age of this author, and in 
the hands of the Rabbis he seems gradually to be growing younger — more modern 
— with every generation. 

The Hebrews found the Iron-age wherever they went. * Barzil ' was among 
the metals taken from the Midianites by Moses (Numb. xxxi. 22). The 'bed- 
stead,' or rather divan, of Og, the King of Bashan, measuring nine cubits of man 
(each = sixteen inches) in length by four broad, was of iron (Deut iii. 11). 
Joshua shows that the Canaanites owned * chariots of iron' (xvii. 16). These 
tribes, displaced by the Jews, seem to have been accomplished workers in metal.* 
Traces of iron-smelting occur on the Libanus,^ where I found copper-stone,* and 
where, during the present century, coal and asphalte have been mined. Many 
parts of the country, as Argob in ancient Bashan, produce an abundance of iron- 
stone.® The old Phoenician Sanconiathon, a name which may denote a history 
or its historian, tells us through the Greek translator Philo of Byblus, that the 

1 ffik or hak (chieQ has a suspicious resemblance later introduction of the latter. But when was the 

to Shaykh f and sos to sih^ the mare, characteristically Pentateuch written in its present form ? 
ridden by the Bedawin. In old Egyptian jtfx is a • Rougemont, VAge du Brmu^ pp. 188 ^ seq, 

bufialo. * Volney, Travels, ii. 438. 

» Much of it, however, was the amygdaloid green- 

* Movers {Phcnicier, ii. 3), quoted by Dr. Evans stone, called in English * toadstone,* a corruption of 

{Brottu, dr*c. 5), finds bronze (copper?) 44 and iron the Germ. Todsiein. 
13 times in the Pentateuch, and he theorises upon the • Speaker's Commentary , i. 831. 



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I04 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

people were famous for their Technites, artisans and blacksmiths. The warlike 
Hittites, as will appear, were also iron-workers. 

From Egypt the use of iron would spread through Asia Minor * eastward to 
Naharayn,^ the two-river-land, Mesopotamia. But the date is disputed. The 
excavations of the late Mr. George Smith yielded no iron articles older than 
B.C. 1000-80C. Mr. Day remarks that 'whilst Mesopotamia has not, up to the 
present time, produced any solid evidence in the form of material iron relics 
belonging to the oldest monarchies ; nevertheless, the monuments of those earliest 
times are numerous, and they yield abundance of testimony to the acquaintance 
of the contemporary i>eople with iron.' In later ages he alludes to the rings and 
bangles of iron in the British Museum, which were possibly chain-links; and 
particularly to the *ombos of a shield,* as the most exquisite piece of their ham- 
mered iron-work he has met with : he doubts if it can in some respects be sur- 
passed by the productions of to-day. The cuneiforms speak of iron fetters, and 
the people of the great Interamnian plain knew the art of casting bronze over 
iron,^ only lately introduced into our metallurgy. 

According to Mr. G. Smith there is no pure Assyrian word for * iron.' ^ Its 
cuneiform symbol is •-►f-^f, but the phonetic value or pronunciation has not 
yet been determined. *It must have been in use 2000 B.C.,' and it is found 
in inscriptions of all ages. The word is supposed to belong to the ancient 
Turanian or Proto-Babylonian race (Akkadian * or Sumirian) that held the river- 
plains, and it has been grafted into the more recent Assyrian language. In the 
inscriptions, each god has his sign, and the symbol above given, accompanies, as 
his attribute, one of the deities of war and hunting : thus it is a parallel to that 
found in the cartouche of the Egyptian * Iron King.' 

Canon Rawlinson,® on the other hand, assigns to the symbol the phonetic 
value of Hurud, which thus became the Chaldaean equivalent for *iron.' In 
concert with his distinguished brother, he came to the conclusion : 'There are two 
signs for metals in Assyria, with respect to which there is a doubt which is iron 
and which is brass (or bronze rather). These are •- Hf- Hf- and ^^T\' Sir Henry 
Rawlinson, on the whole, inclines to regard the first as bronze and the second 

* This term seems first to have been used by (Arab.^i^, brass), bronze ; amiku^ tin ; eru or entdu^ 
Orosius(i.2)inourfourthcentunr. ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^b. ,U, copper or brass); 

- In chap. ix. I shall attempt to show that ^^ ^J^^^ j^^ The learned 

Naharayn (the dual of Nahr, a nver) ,s also applied ^^^j^^^ ^j^^^^^^ j^ ^^^ cuneiforms repeated mention 

o Palesune m such phrases as 'Tunipe ^Daphne- ^^ ^^^ .^.p^ ^^ ^^^^. ^^ ^^^ Kur MakannaU 

town) ot JNaharayn. (mountain of Makna), which he translates *Pays de 

* Dr. Percy found that certain Assyrian bronzes M^j-^n ' : finding it a great centre of copper, he is 
had been cast round a support of the more tenacious inclined to confound it with the so-caUed Sinaitic 
metal, thus combinmg strength with lightness. Peninsula. I have only to refer readers to ' Makni * 

* M. F. Lenormant (* Les Noms d'Airain et du in my three volumes on the Land of Midian. 
Cuivre dans les deux Langues . . . de la Chaldee et * Akkad is upper, Sumir lower Babylonia. 

de TAssyrie, Tram, Sec. Bibl. Archaology^ vi. part • The Five Great MonewchUs of the Aneient 

2) renders parzillu^ iron; abar^ lead; shiparru Eastern WV/</, vol. i. p. 62. London, 1871. 



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IRON IN ASSYRIA, 105 

as iron, although the former is nowhere rendered phonetically. The latter is 
rendered in a syllabary as equivalent to Hurud in Akkadian and Em in Assyrian. 
Mr. George Smith reverses the meanings of the two signs. The point is a very 
doubtful one.' 

After the decay of the Proto-Babylonian or Chaldaean empire (B.C. 2300-1500), 
when the seat of Interamnian rule moved to the Tigris-Euphrates basin, and the 
three Assyrian periods flourished (B.C. 1500-555),* iron was largely used. It was 
produced, according to Layard (Joe, cii.) in the Tiyari mountains, and it is still 
found in quantities on the slopes, three or four days' journey from Mosul. The 
north-western palace of Nimriid (Kalah) showed, amongst the rubbish-heaps, much 
rusty iron and a perfect helmet like that represented in the bas-reliefs. There 
were Swords and daggers, shields and shield- handles, rods, and the points of spears 
and arrows, which fell to pieces on exposure. Amongst the few specimens pre- 
served were the head of a trident-like weapon, some Sword-handles, a large blunt 
spear-pile, the point of a pick, several objects resembling the heads of sledge- 
hammers, and a double-handed saw of iron or steel (?), about three feet eight 
inches long by four inches and five-eighths broad, for cross-cutting timber. The 
British Museum owns a fine collection of Assyrian sheet or plate iron-work ; 
pieces of unfinished forgings ; a rude triangular lump through which a round hole 
has been driven (by a heated punch ?) ; several cylindrical bars, straight and 
curved ; wall-cramps, nails, and door-hinges ; a ladle ; rings of sizes (one being 
three inches in diameter) ; a signet-ring containing a silver bezel or seal ; and, 
lastly, a portion of what seems to have been a double-sided comb. In much later 
days the Assyrians of Xerxes' army carried, according to Herodotus, shields, 
spears, daggers, and wooden clubs spiked with iron. 

The Greeks learned their metallurgy, as they did all their arts, from Egypt ; 
and, following in the footsteps of the Phoenicians, diffused them throughout the 
Western World. In Theseus' time, according to Wilkinson — that is, B.C. 1235 — 
' iron is conjectured not to have been known, as he was found buried with a brass 
(copper, bronze }) Sword and spear.' They did not use iron weapons, and pro- 
bably had no iron during their first foreign campaign— the Trojan war. The 
Parian (Arundelian) Chronicle (dating its notices from Cecrops, B.C. 1582) and 
the Rhodian myths refer to a conflagration in the Cretan mountains which taught 

> The first period extended from B.C. 150010909. banipal (668-640); Nebuchadnezzar in 604-561, a 

The second from b.c. 909 to 745 : the most marking contemporary of Solon (B.C. 594) ; Nergalsharuzur 

names being Assurnazirpal ^ * Ashur (arbiter of the (b.c. 557); and the last Nabonidus (B.C. 555). 

gods) protects his son/ who built the north-west Herodotus (a. D. 450) wrote about a century after the 

palace of Nimrud, B.C. 884 ; and his son Shal- end of the third period, Ctesias in B.C. 395, and 

roanezer II. of the Black Obelisk (Brit. Museum), Berosus in B.C. 280. We have, it is clear, absolutely 

B.C. 850. The third period (B.C. 745-555) numbered no historic proof that *the patriarchal system of com- 

Tiglath-Pileser II., b.c. 745-727 (a single generation munities first locally developed itself at the mouth of 

before the first Olympic, B.C. 776, when ihe mythic the Euphrates Valley,* or began in any part of the 

age of Greece emerges into the historical) ; Senna- great Mesopotamian plain, 
cherib (705-681); Esarhaddon (680-668), Assur- 



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io6 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

metallurgy to the Idaean Daktyls (Aa/cn/Xot 'ISatot) : * this would, however, be a 
comparatively late date when we regard Egypt* 

With respect to the metal in the Hissarlik remains, Dr. Schliemann remarks 
(i. 31) : *The only objects of iron which I found were a key of curious shape and 
a few arrows and nails close to the surface.' It is no proof that it was used 
because Homer some centuries afterwards spoke of the Kvavo^ {cyanus)y steel 
tempered blue, a word which even in antiquity was translated by xoKxr^ {chalybs^ 
steel). The explorer remarks : * Articles of steel may have existed : I believe 
positively that they did exist ; but they have vanished without leaving a trace 
of their existence ; for, as we know, iron and steel become decomposed much 
more readily than copper.' Yet, so contradictory is the whole book, and so 
uncertain are its conclusions, we find,' * No. 4. Drillings of one of the Trojan 
sling-bullets, externally covered with verdigris, and internally the colour of iron ' ; 
while the assay shows that it consisted chiefly of copper and sulphur. Among the 
contemporary (?) finds ol Mycenae, which not a few authorities have pronounced 
to be Byzantine, and another observer Keltic,^ Dr. Schliemann met with iron in the 
shape of knives and keys ; but he holds these articles to be of comparatively late 
date, not older than the fifth century B.C.* At that time iron must have been 
general throughout Greece. In the fourth century, Aristotle (* Meteorologica ') 
treats at length upon iron and its modifications. One passage runs : * Wrought 
iron may be so cast as to be made liquid and to reharden ; and thus it is they are 
wont to make steel (to aroyjuyM) ; for the scoria of iron subsides and is purged off 
by the bottom, and when it is often defaecated and cleansed, this is steel. But 
this they do not often, because of the great waste, and because it loses much 
weight in refining ; but iron is so much the more excellent the more recre- 
ment it has.' Daimachus, Aristotle's contemporary, says of steels {jmv croy^myLa- 
T(Dv\ * There is the Chalybdic,® the Synopic, the Lydian, and the Lacedaemonian. 
The Chalybdic is best for carpenters' tools ; the Lacedaemonian for files, drills, 
gravers, and stone-chisels ; the Lydian also is suited for files, and for knives, 
razors, and rasps.' Avicenna (Abu AH Sind), in his fifth book, ' De Anima,' accord- 
ing to Roger Bacon, has three species of the metal : (i) Iron, good for hammers 
and anvils, but not for cutting tools ; (2) Steel,^ which is purer and has more heat 

> Rev. B. H. Cooper (iiv. «/.) would derive *Ida* king (ob. B.c. 570), dedicated to his gpd, amongst 

from the Semitic ^> {ya^, hand), and make the other offerings, an inlaid iron saucer. 
Daktyls, or fingers, its peaks. • Neither from this nor from any other passage 

« I shall reserve for chap. xi. notices of iron by can we ascertain whether the Chalybes tribe gave its 

the classic and sacred poets of Greece. °ame to cAa/j^ds (steel), or whether the material 

.„. ,.r,. i-xL i-t_ worked named the workmen. 

» 7tvy and Us Remains^ p. 362 ; the analysis by . ^ . 1 v 1 / *x o / •• -cv 1 .1. . • 

Mnflfl »*'J» ' ^ r Colonel Yule {Af, Polo, u. 96) remarks that m 

^ the Middle Ages steel was r^arded as a distinct 

* The theory of Stephani, Schulze, and others natural species made of another ore, and relates how 
concerning the Byzantine date and Herulian ongin ^ ^^^^^ to whom an English officer had explained the 
of the Mycenaean graves, has been treated m England p^^^^^ ^f tempering replied, « What, would you have 
with some respect by Mr. A. S. Munay and Mr. Perry. ^^ beU^^^ ^j^^^ jf j p^^ ^^ ^^ -^^^^ ^j^^ f^^^^^ j^ ^j,i 

* According to Pausanias, Alyaties, the Lydian come out a horse ? * 



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ROMAN IRON, 107 

in it ; it is therefore less malleable, but better able to take an edge ; and (3) 
Andena, ductile and malleable under a low degree of heat, and intermediate 
between iron and steel. Apparently the latter is the Hindiah or Hindiydneh, the 
Ferrum Indicum and the Ondanique of Marco Polo (i. 17). 

The Romans, a more cosmopolitan people than the Greeks, paid great atten- 
tion to the mineral wealth of their conquests, and were careful to choose the best 
acies ' for their weapons. Diodorus Siculus ' describes the process by which the 
Celtiberians prepared their iron for Swords. Pliny, who was Procurator of Spain 
under Vespasian, may have studied iron-mining and ore-working in the country 
which still produces the Toledo blade. He characterises the metal generally as being 
universally used and occurring in every part of the world — especially in Ilva, now 
Elba, where there are mines of oligiste, specular iron or iron glance. His process 
of steel-making is that of the Greeks. * Fomacum maxima differentia est ; in eis 
equidem nucleus ferri * (the clSrjpof ipyaa-fisvos or worked iron of Aristotle) * exco- 
quitur ad indurandum ; aliter alioque modo ad densandas incudes, malleorumve 
rostra' (xxxiv. 41). Hence it appears that the Romans had one way to make 
steel, and another to harden and temper tools, picks, and anvils. * Possibly,' says 
Dr. Martin Lister, * the latter were boiled in " sow-metal," as the term densare 
seems to suggest' 

Roman mining-operations were often conducted on a large scale. The Forest 
of Dean and the Wealds of Kent and Sussex, not to mention other parts of 
England, show heaps of old slag containing classical pottery and coins of Nero, 
Vespasian, and Diocletian. They obtained the regulus ' by the direct process, and 
used charcoal in rude Catalan furnaces ; the work was imperfect, and the scoriae 
contain a large percentage of metal. Ancient adits and shafts in Shropshire* 
and elsewhere have preserved the rude implements with which they made the 
natives labour in corvee. The hill-sides of Carthagena on the seaboard of Murcia 
(South-Eastem Spain) had been explored for lead and silver by the earliest 
Carthaginian colonists ; and the industry was at its height when Nova Carthago, 
under Roman rule, became (B.C. 200) a flourishing municipium, the centre of a 
large population. At this time as many as forty thousand hands were regularly 
employed. In our seventh century the Arab invasion ruined the mines, not only 
of this district, but of every province occupied by the ' Moors.' About the mid- 
fifteenth century a revival was attempted ; but this was checked at the beginning 
of the sixteenth, when the mines of Spanish America were opened : the Emperor 

* Acies is properly the edge, that is, the steeled burying is often spoken of; I have never seen it 

or cutting part of an instrument, which may be case- practised. 

hardened. Hence the later words aciare^ to steel, • Regulus (the * little king ') is the residue of pure 
and aciarium^ sharpening steel ; hence, too, the neo- metal purged of its dross ; the old alchemists so en- 
Latin (uicTy acciaio^ &c. titled it because they ever expected to find the great 

' See chap. xiii. Dr. Evans {^Bronte, 275) says, king — Gold. 

* How far their process of burying iron until part of * At the Anthropological Congress of Austrian 

it had rusted away would, in the case of charcoal iron, Salzburg (Aug. 1881) the tools attributed to the 

leave the remaining portion more of the nature of * Keltic * miners were almost the same as those which 

steel, I am unable to say.' It will appear that this I had seen near the Wrekin. 



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io8 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

Charles V. also would not see the soil of his European dominions disturbed by 
digging. The miners emigrated in mass, and New Carthage was forgotten till 
within the last half-century. According to M. Alfred Massart/ the ancient masses 
of plumbiferous scoriae were large enough to pay for re-working. A superficial 
area of eight square leagues yielded some eight hundred thousand tons of iron-ore, 
of which two-thirds were ferro-manganese, and twenty thousand to twenty-five 
thousand tons of lead containing thirty thousand kilogrammes of silver. As regards 
the use of iron for many purposes by the ancient Britons before the Roman con- 
quest, we may fairly, without attaching importance to the legend of * Milesius,' 
believe that the industry may also have migrated northwards from a Spanish 
centre. Hence, Mr. Hutton, the local historian of Birmingham, believes that 
Sword-blades were made there before the landing of Julius Caesar. 

From Assyria the use of iron would extend through Persia to India, to Indo- 
China, and to China and Japan. Professor Max Miiller, as Mr. Day justly 
observes, differs with himself when he states in one place ^ that * iron was not 
known previously to the breaking up of the Aryan family ' ; and in another pas- 
sage,' where we are told, * Before the separation of the Aryan race . . . there can 
be no doubt that iron was known and its value appreciated.' Here, evidently, the 
Sanskritist had changed his first opinion, because he had noticed that * Ayas * 
may also mean copper or bronze. The Rig Veda mentions mail-coats, hatchets, 
and weapons of iron ; but so far from assigning to this work the age of B.C. 1300, we 
may fairly hold that its present shape was assumed in the early centuries following 
Christianity. We have trustworthy notices of the metal in India only at the 
beginning of authentic history, when the acumen of the Greeks was applied to the 
gross absurdities of Hindu fable.^ The Malli and Oxydracae presented to Alex- 
ander a hundred talents' weight of Indian steel {ferrum candidum) in wrought 
bars, just as Homer's Achilles (* II.' xxiii. 826), nearly a thousand years before, 
offered at the funeral games of Patroclus, * a rudely-molten mass of iron ' {aoXov 
avToxoo>vovy self-melted ?), which had been used for hurling at the foe by Eetion, 
and which would supply the farm with metal for five years. The * bright iron ' of 
Ezekiel, named amongst the wares of Tyre (xxvii. 19) with cassia and calamus, 
was probably the same material. The Periplus mentions sideros indikos and 

» Ing^nieur des Mines : *Gisements mdtalliftres * Mr. Day {General Table of Terms^ given ai end 

du District de Carthag^ne (Espagne),' Li^e, 1875; a of this chapter) quotes as * oldest Sanskrit * two names 

contribution to the Proc, Geolog. Soc Belgium ; and ^^ ^^— ^^ ^^ ^ ^^. ^^ ^^ 

the result of extensive geological and mineralogical ^ ^ 

observation. The coloured map shows the strata- ('^>«) or Saturn; iron (oxide of iron, iron-stone?), 

sequence (actual and in ideal order) to be tertiary ^rass (copper ?) ; and ^S[^^ , dyas (whence qyas- 
limestone, iron-ore (carbonated, manganiferous, or y 

, ., . ,. \ ui ^ ,-uu4^ . o:i:««*z.^ ian/, a loadstone, and ayaskdr. a smith), a word 
plumbiferous) ; schistes ; blende ; schistes ; sihcated ' .- , • .. lu n I xm r^ 

Y . ' already noticed in comiection with as. But Mr. Day 

adds to his 'oldest Sanskrit * * probably B.c. 15CX) '; 

« Lectures on the Science of Language, pp. 254- ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^ recognise the master-touch of the 
55, vol. u., edit. 1873. subtle race— 

» Chips from a German Workshop (set up in * for profound 

England), p. 47, vol. ii., edit. 1868. And solid lying much renowned.' 



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IRON IN INDIA, 109 

st6moma (steel) as imports to the Abyssinian harbours. Daimachus and Pliny 
specify, amongst the dearest kinds of steel, the ferrum Indicum and the ferrum 
Sericum ; and Salmasius refers to a Greek chemical treatise * On the Tempering 
(7r£pl I3cuf>!j9) of Indian Steel* 

The great iron-working age of India seems to have been in the fourth and fifth 
centuries of our era, when the blacksmiths must have been skilful and commanded 
an unlimited supply of the best metal. The Ldt or iron-pillar of Delhi, to men- 
tion no other, is a solid shaft, showing that the people were unable to make a core. 
This simple piece of wrought metal, calculated to weigh seventeen tons and to 
contain eighty cubic feet of metal, measures in diameter 16*4 inches tapering to 
12-05. The height above ground is twenty-two feet, and excavations of twenty-six 
feet did not reach the base : the known length therefore is upwards of forty-eight 
feet* The sundry inscriptions punched upon it are of very various dates : 
Prinsep * assigns our third or fourth century to the Nagari character in which 
Rajah Dhava thus * renowned it ' : — 

* By him who, learning the warlike preparations and entrenchments of his 
enemies with their good soldiers and allies, a monument of fame engraved by his 
Sword on their limbs, who as master of the seven advantages,' crossing over (the 
Indus?), so subdued the Vahlikas of Sindhu [N.B. : they can hardly be the 
* people of Balkh *] that even at this day his disciplined force and defences on the 
south (of the river) are sacredly respected by them,' &c. &c. 

Metallurgists dispute as to the way in which this huge iron rod was wrought. 
One writer,* however, seems to have hit upon the solution of the problem : * The 
column may have been forged standing, by welding on, one over another, thin 
iron plates or dires, the fire being built round the column as it grew ; and the 
ground raised in a mound to keep the top of the column on a level with the work- 
place.' Pyramid-building has been explained in the same way — a causeway. 

But the Ldt is not the only marvel of Hindu metallurgy. Mr. James Fer- 
gusson found in the Temple of Kanaruc, or Black Pagoda of the Madras Presi- 
dency, beams of wrought iron about twenty-one feet in length and eight inches 
section, to strengthen the roof, which the Hindus, in their distrust of the arch 
formed after their usual bracket-fashion. In the fane of Mahavellipore he dis- 
covered sockets for similar supports. He assigns to the Black Pagoda a date 
between A.D. 1236 and 1241 ; and to Mahavellipore any time between our tenth 
and fourteenth centuries.* Colonel Pearse, R.A. presented to the trustees of the 

* Report of Gen. A. Cunningham (Archoeolog. • The Persian haft^jtish (seven boilings), referred 
Survey, 1861-62). It speaks highly for Anglo-Indian to by Ibn Batutah in Colonel \ule*s letter, p. 145 
vis inertutzxiA incuriousness when we are told that (Day, p. 153). 

the • whole length of the pillar is unknown,* and when * Quoted by Mr. Day (p. 24) from the Untied 

every observer's account of it differs in es<^ntials. States Railroad and Mining Register. 

^ The sa7>ant who first translated the inscription ' Mr. Day (quoting Fergusson's Illustrations of 

Indian Antiquities^ \o\,\, p. 319. The dates vary Ancient Architecture in Hindostan^ London, 1848) 

between the tenth century B.C. and a.d. 1052 (!). cautions his readers that * Mr. Fergusson's dates arc 



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no 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



British Museum a unique collection of archaic tools, iron and steel, gouges, 
spatute, ladles, and similar articles, dug out of tumuli at Wari Gaon, near 
Kampti. But there are no grounds whatever for dating them * about B.C. 1 500, or 
the time of Moses,' 

They^rrww Indicum^ of the Classics may still be represented by the famous 
Wootz or Wutz,^ the * natural Indian steel,' still so much prized for Sword-blades 
in Persia and Afghanistan. The specimens first sent in 1795 ^^ the Royal 
Society of London were analysed by Mr. Josiah M. Heath with the results given 
below.' 

Colonel Yule remarks that the Wootz was, in part at least, the famous Indian 
steel, the a-tSTjpo^ ^IvSiko^ koX aroiMOfia of the * Periplus,' the Hunduwdnf of the 
mediaeval Persian traders ; the Andanicum or Ondanique of Marco Polo and 
the Alkinde of the old Spanish. In the sixteenth century the exportation 
was chiefly from Baticala in Canara. The King of Portugal complains (in A.D. 
1 591) of the large quantities shipped from Chaul to be sold in the Red Sea to the 
Turks and on the African coast about Melinde.* And I would note that this 
industry by no means argues civilisation in India or elsewhere : * as Dr. Percy 
remarks, * The primitive method of extracting good malleable iron direct from the 
ore, which is still practised in India and in Africa, requires a degree of skill very 
inferior to that which is implied in the manufacture of bronze.' 

The system of Wootz-making, especially at Salem and in parts of Mysore, has 



not to be relied on, however important his writings 
unquestionably are in other respects * (P* i68). Here 
again we see the misleading influence of the San- 
skritists, who have allowed themselves to be cozened 
by the * mild Hindu.* Mr. Day inclines (p. 151) to 
the tenth century B.C. (!), when the peoples of India 
were, we have reason to believe, the merest savages. 

» The modern Hindus call steel Paldah^ from the 
Persian luUd^ the Arab. Fuldii. They apply to 
Spanish steel the terms Ispdt^ Sukhchy and Tolad. 
Their favourite trial of Sword-metal is with a bar of 
soft gold, which should leave a streak. 

* Colonel Yule does not consider the word genu- 
ine, and with reason, as the Indo- Phoenician (* Safa *) 
alphabet has no w and no z. The word first appears 
in ' Experiments and Observations to investigate the 
Nature of a Kind of Steel manufactured at Bombay, 
and there called Wooiz,* ... by G. Pearson, M.D. 
(paper read before the Royal Soc., June 11, 1795). 
He notes that * Dr. Scott of Bombay, in a letter to 
the President, acquainted him that he had sent over 
•'specimens of a substance known by the name of 
wQotZy which is considered to be a kind of steel, and 
is in high esteem among the Indians"' (p. 322). 
In Wilkinson's Engines 0/ IVar (i 841) we read (pp. 
203-206), * The cakes of steel are called wootz.* 

Dr. E. Balfour states that uchhd and nlchhd (in 
Hindustani *high' and *low') are used in the 
Canarese provinces to denote superior and inferior 



descriptions of articles, and that Wootz may be a cor- 
ruption of the former. Colonel Yule and his coadju- 
tor in the Glossary of Indian Terms, the late lamented 
Dr. Burnell, hold that it originated in some clerical 
error or misreading, perhaps from wook, representing 
the Canarese ukku = steel. 

• ^ /combined . . . i'333 

luncombined . . . 0*312 

Si 0*045 

S o*i8i 

As, 0*037 

Fe (by difference) . . 98*092 

100 000 
Phillips, Metallurgy f p. 317. Faraday found in 
Wootz 0*0128 — 0*0695 per cent, of aluminium, and 
attributed the * damask ' of the blades to its presence. 
Karsten, after three experiments, and Mr. T. H. 
Henry, failed to detect it, and suggested that it may 
have U^n derived from intermingled slag containing 
silicate of alumina (Percy, fron^ 6r'c. pp. 183-84). 

• Archvv, Port. Oriental, fascic iii. p. 318. 

• M. Keller {Pres. Soc. Ant. Switz.) notes that 
crudely formed lumps and quadrangular blocks of 
malleable iron, double pyramids weighing 10-16 lbs., 
have been found in prehistoric sites. They were 
probably produced in primitive Catalans. Pieces of 
iron slag worked by the Kelts were discovered in 1862 
on the Cheviot Hills. 



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WOOTZ. Ill 

been described by many writers. About a pound weight of malleable iron, made 
from magnetic ore, is placed, minutely broken and moistened, in a crucible of 
refractory clay, together with finely chopped pieces of wood {Cassia auriculata). 
It is packed without flux. The open pots are then covered with the green leaves 
of the Asclepias gigantea or the Convolvulus lanifolius, and the tops are coated over 
with wet clay, which is sun-dried to hardness. * Charcoal will not do as a substitute 
for the green twigs/ Some two dozen of these cupels * or crucibles are disposed 
archways at the bottom of a furnace, whose blast is managed with bellows of 
bullock's hide. The fuel is composed mostly of charcoal and of sun-dried brattis 
or cow-chips. After two or three hours' smelting the cooled crucibles are broken 
up, when the regulus appears in the shape and size of half an egg. According to 
Tavernier, the best buttons from about Golconda were as large as a halfpenny 
roll, and sufficed to make two Sword-blades (.^). These 'cops' are converted into 
bars by exposure for several hours to a charcoal fire not hot enough to melt them : 
they are then turned over before the blast, and thus the too highly carburised 
steel is oxidised.^ 

According to Professor Oldham,^ * Wootz ' is also worked in the Damudah 
Valley, at Birbhum, Dyucha, Narayanpur, Damrah, and Goanpiir. In 1852 some 
thirty furnaces at Dyucha reduced the ore to kachhd or pig-iron, small blooms 
from Catalan forges; as many more converted it to pakkd {cxwA^ steel), prepared 
in furnaces of different kind. The work was done by different castes ; the Hindfs 
(Moslems) laboured at the rude metal, and the Hindis preferred the refining work. 
I have read that anciently a large quantity of Wootz found its way westward vul 
Peshdwar. 

When last visiting (April 19, 1876) the Mahabaleshwar Hills near Bombay, I 
had the pleasure to meet Mr. Joyner, C.E., and with his assistance made personal 
inquiries into the process. The whole of the Sayhddri range (Western Ghats), and 
especially the * great- Might-of-Shiva* mountains, had for many ages supplied 
Persia with the best steel. Our Government, since 1866, forbade the industry, as 
it threatened the highlands with disforesting. The ore was worked by the Hill- 
tribes, of whom the principal are the Dhdnwars, Dravidians now speaking Hin- 
dustani.* Only the brickwork of their many raised furnaces remained. For fuel 

> The cupel (of old copel) is the French coufeUe, 1. Rude, like chimney-pots; used by the hill- 
little coupe. The muffle is a metal cupel. tribes of Western India, the Deccan, and the Car- 

• This is the process of working Wootz given by natic. 
Mr. Heath ; others pack the metal with finely- 2. Simple Catalan forge 1 Central India and the 

chopped stalks of asclepias as well as cassia. Mr. 3. Early form of Stiickofen / N.W. Provinces. 

Mallet has described the Indian manufacture of large The anvil is a square iron without beak. Three 

iron masses in TA^ Engituery vol. xxxiii. pp. 19, kinds of Indian bellows are noticed (pp. 255-56). 

20. Beckmann {he, cit, sub v, ' Steel ') notices The people, who love stare super aniiquas znas, 

the bloomeries or furnaces. The Penny Cychpadia ignore the hot blast : this contrivance causes a more 

and Ure*s Diet, of Chemistry (the latter the best), active combustion, an * ultimate fact * as yet unex- 

London, Longmans, 1839, may also be consulted. plained. 
Dr. Percy gives a long account (pp. 254-66) of iron- ■ Report of 1852. 

smelting in India from Mr. Howard Ulackwell. He ^ The dialect is much more ancient than we 

notes three kinds of furnaces : — usually suppose: it existed long before Akbar the 



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112 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

they preferred the Jumbul-wood, and the Anjan or iron-wood. They packed the 
iron and fourteen pounds of charcoal in layers ; and, after two hours of bellows- 
working, the metal flowed into the forms. The *Kurs' (bloom), five inches in 
diameter by two and a half deep, was then beaten into Tdwds or plates. The matrix 
resembled the Brazilian, a poor yellow-brown limonite striping the mud-coloured 
clay ; and actual testing disproved the common idea that the * watering ' of the 
surface is found in the metal. The Jauhar (* jewel ' or ribboning) of the so-called 
• Damascus ' blade was produced artificially, mostly by drawing out the steel into 
thin ribbons which were piled and welded by the hammer. My friend afterwards 
sent me from India an inkstand of Mahabaleshwar iron.* 

I could not learn from Hindus that they bury iron in the earth till the 'core' 
is reached. But they are well acquainted with tempering by cold immersion, as 
noticed by Salmasius (* Exercit Plin.' 763) : they still believe with Pliny, Justin, 
and a host of others, in * a Sword, the icebrook's temper,* and all hold that the 
hardening of metal depends much upon the quality of the water. They quench 
delicate articles in oil, a method also alluded to by Pliny, but they ignore his 
statement (xxviii. 41) that rust produced by goat's blood gives a better edge to 
iron than the file. I am not aware that they have ever used for quenching pur- 
poses quicksilver, the best conductor of heat 

In Burmah, as in India, the chief peculiarity of iron-smelting is the use of green- 
wood fuel.^ Throughout the mighty * Hollander ' Archipelago of the Farther East, this 
metal, known in former days only by importation, is now everywhere common. Java 
received the Egyptian arts from India, which colonised her about the beginning of 
the Christian era : the now untravelled Hindu was then a voyager and an explorer. 
Dr. Percy describes the iron-smelting of Borneo,' which produces the Parangilang, 
a peculiar Sword-like weapon equally fit for felling trees and men.* At Tahiti 
(Otaheiti), on the other hand. Captain Cook was unable to make the natives 
appreciate the use of metal till his armourer wrought an iron adze in shape like the 
native. 

The oldest, and indeed the only, Chinese word for iron is ^ — tie^ formerly 
pronounced tit. It is first mentioned among the tribute-articles of Yu in the 
Yu-Kung section of the Shoo-King,* and the latter has been estimated to date 
from B.C. 2200-2000. If this be fact, hieroglyphic tablet-writing flourished 
amongst the * Bak ' some five hundred years before the age popularly attributed 
to the Hebrew Scriptures, and when the Greeks had not begun to form a nation.^ 

Great and his * Urdu zabdn ' (camp language), for we by Dr. C. A. L. M. Schauer during 1843-47, 

find that the poet Chand wrote in it during the twelfth p. 109. 

century. « The Swords of the Borneo Dyaks and the 

» As will appear in Part II. there are many pro- islanders of Timor and Rotti are photographed by the 

cesses for making the Damascus ; the ex ict markings, Curator of the Christy Collection, 
however, are best produced by that noticed above. » Mr. Day quotes, book i., the Tribute of Yu, 

» Pp. 270-3, from the descriptions of Mr. W. T. Legge*s Chinese Classics, vol. iii. part i. p. 121 

Blanford, of the Geol. Survey of India. (Triibner, London, 1865). 

» Pp. 273-5 > borrowed from Travels in Bomto^ • The * Celestial Empire, * according to her annals, 



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IRON IN CHINA, 113 

Either then the Sinologues, like the Sanskritists, have been deluded by the artful native 
into admitting the preposterous claims to antiquity of culture always advanced by 
semi-barbarous peoples ; or, what is hardly likely, China formed a centre of Turanian 
civilisation wholly independent of Egypt and Chaldsea. Indeed, there appears to have 
been some contact of ideas in the matter of writing. The Kemite denoted * man ' and 
*eye' by copying nature ; and probably the Chinese did the same. But the Turanian 
symbols have lost, by the law of pictorial evanescence, the original forms : * man ' 
has become /^ = jin (No. 9),^ a pair of legs ; and ' eye ' g = muh (No. 109), looks 
as if copied from a cat The picture-origin of the Assyrian syllabary has also 
been satisfactorily established by the Rev. W. Haughton, but the later forms are 
as degraded as in the hieratic and demotic Egyptian.* 

The passage above alluded to enumerates the articles of tribute as * musical 
gems-stones,* iron, silver, steel, stones for arrow-heads, and sounding stones, with 
the skins of bears, great bears, foxes, jackals, and articles woven with their hair.' 
Dr. Legge adds in a note : * By ^.= 7/>, we are to understand " soft iron," and by 
^'=^Low or Lowe^ "hard iron" or ** steel." At the time of the Han dynasty, 
"iron-masters" (^ 'g)were appointed in the several districts of the old Leangchou, 
to superintend the iron-works. Tsa'e refers to two individuals mentioned in the 
" Historical Records " ; one of the surname Ch*o, (j^^)., and the other of the sur- 
name Ch*ing (g), both of this part of the empire, who became so wealthy by 
their smelting that they were deemed equal to princes.' According to the Rev. 
Dr. Edkins, * with the exception of this passage there is probably no distinct allu- 
sion to iron in writings older than B.C. 1 000 ; ' and his statement seems to establish 
the date of Chinese technology and civilisation. 

About B.C. 400 the celebrated author and philosopher Leih-Tze mentions steel, 
and describes the process of tempering it In the * K*ang-hi-tse-tien ' (^ S? $ #), 
better known as * Kanghi's Dictionary,* published about A.D. 1710, the author 
represents the Serican contemporary of Aristotle as sayings that * a red blade will 
cut Hu (jade or nephrite) as it would cut mud.* Mr. Day makes this to mean a 

* reddish-coloured blade,* red being one of the many tints which a clean surface of 
steel acquires in the process of tempering. It certainly cannot refer to red-hot 

began B.C. lcx>,ocx>-So,ocx> ; the date being probably rivers which flow into it.* Yet I am curious to ascer- 

astronomical, or rather astrological, founded, like the tain by actual travel if China ever possessed a centre 

four Hindu aeras, upon retrograde calculations. The of civilisation independent of what she received from 

first cycle of 60 years is attributed to the Emperor the West ; in other words, non-Egyptian. 
Hwang-tf, and its initiation to the 6ist year of his * Of the 214 keys or radicals. The first three 

reign, in B.C. 2637 (the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt ?). arithmetical figures are lines disposed horizontally, 

The first historical dates are given in B.C. 651, a while the Egyptians wrote them vertically. In his 

century after the foundation of Rome : these figures Terminal Table (aflixed to this chapter) Mr. Day 

afford a curious contrast between pretensions and assigns Chinese to the * Sporadic or Allophyllian 

proof. But as Englishmen after long residence family.* I believe it t6 be the oldest and, as far as 

* grow black * in Africa, and have become semi- we know, the original form of Turanian speech, a 
Hinduiscd in India, so in China they have allowed kind of iertium quid deduced from the so-called 
themselves to be imposed upon by the * magna fabu- * Aryan * and * Semitic * elements of Egyptian, 
ositas,' the marvellous self-suflficiency of astute • Trans, Bib. ArchroL 1879. Sayce*s Grammar 
semi-barbarians. * China is a sea that salts all the gives 522 Assyrian characters. 

I 



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114 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

steel, which would make no impression upon pietra dura. The description of steel- 
making in B.C 400 is so far complete that it names and describes the several kinds. 
The first treatment produces *Twan-Kang' or ball-steel, so called from the 
rounded bloom,* or *Kwan-Kang' (sprinkled steel), because treated with cold 
affusion. There is also * Wei-Tie ' or false steel. The writer says : * When I was 
sent on official business to Tse-Chow and visited the foundries there, I understood 
this for the first time. Iron has steel within it, as meal contains vermicelli. Let 
it be subjected to fire a hundred times or more ; it becomes lighter each time. 
If the firing be continued until the weight does not diminish, it is pure 
steel.' « 

About the beginning of the Christian era a tax was levied upon iron by the 
State exchequer, showing that the manufacture had become important. According 
to the Pi-tan or Pencil-Talk, written probably under the Ming dynasty ' (A.D. 
1 366-1644), steel IS thus made : 'Wrought iron is bent or t^\'isted up ; unwrought 
iron (i.e. iron-ore or cast-iron) is thrown into it ; it is covered up with mud and 
subjected to the action of fire, and afterwards to the hammer.' This is the old 
and well-known process of steeling practised by the Greeks. Wrought iron was 
either immersed into molten cast-iron as into a bath, or it was heated with iron- 
ore and layers of charcoal-fuel covered with alternate strata of clay to exclude 
atmospheric influence, a treatment somewhat similar to what is still called 

* cementation.' * The ore was thus deoxidised by contact with excess of carbon ; 
and a molten carburet was the result It is not a little curious, as Mr. Day 
observes, to find Aristotle and Lieh-Tze describing the same process about the 
same time. But I hesitate to conclude with that able writer that the fact has any 
bearing upon 'the old doctrine of the original unity of the human race ; each sec- 
tion of mankind carrying off with them that common stock of knowledge which 
the entire family possessed before separation.' Mr. Day, I have said, systematic- 
ally opposes the * High Antiquity Theory ' (p. 208) ; and, though he holds to 
Revelation and to Biblical chronology, he has a curious tendency towards the 
mystical etymology of the Jacob Bryant school, and the obsolete Phallic theories 
revived by the learned and able work of the late Dr. Inman.* 

' The lump of iron worked into a mass more or eighth to the ninth century. According to Beckmann, 

less rectangular is called a bloom, from the Saxon he noticed the ore cineritii (cupellation) et ce^ 

blomoy metal in mass (Bosworth) : Blomaferri occurs menti (cementation) tolcrans. The mixture is usually 

in the Domesday Book. Hence ancient furnaces of sal ammoniac, borax, alum, and fine salt : the 

were called bloonuries ; the Elizabethan spelling is a many varieties are described by Percy, Ure, and 

bloomary. The blooms were beaten out to bars. a host of others. Compare also Ure*s account of 

* In Persia I was told that this was one of the cast-steel and of shear-steel, the latter so called 

• secrets * of making the finest Khorasdni blades. because cloth-shears w ere forged of it. 

» It followed the Mongols and preceded the Man- * At least it would so appear from the following 

chow Tartars, who still reign. passage (p. 176): *When we examine the etymology 

* This process of converting iron to steel is first of * pole,* or * pillar,* thus— Saxon, pot ox pal \ Ger- 
described in *^/(rA^wi^C7f^*(El-Gabr),</^r»^/j/Ai/(7- man, /^A/; Danish, /oa/ or /a/ ; Swedish, /o/r; 
sophi sol^rtissimi^ Libri^ (Sr'f., Joan. Petreius Nurem- Welsh /aw/ -we arrive at the Latin pcUus^ which, 
bergen. denuo Bemae excudi faciebat. anno 1545.' besides signifying a pole or stake, is also the ^aKK6t 
The Arab, known to Albertus Magnus, flourished in the of the Greeks, Mahadeva (?) or Linga (?) of the Hin- 



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IRON IN CHINA, 115 

The Pent Saow, also attributed to the days of the Mings, speaks of three kinds 
of steel used for knives and Swords, a division which again reminds us of Dai- 
machus. The first is made by adding unwrought to wrought iron, while the mass 
is subjected to the action of fire. The second is simply the result of repeated 
firings as practised in Africa. The third is native steel produced in the south-west 
at Hai-shan : * In appearance it resembles the stone called " Tsze-shih-ying " 
(purple stone efflorescence).' It is understood that the process of manufacture is 
kept secret' The * Hankow-steel,* which comes to Tien-tsin from the upper 
Yang-tse, is most prized ; and commands much higher prices than the best 
imported English and Swedish ; the Chinese, like the * Caffirs,' look upon these as 
' rotten iron.' 

China also had her 'literary blacksmith,* like Wieland Smith, the northern 
Daidalus. We read that Hoang-ta-tie of T'ancheu, who lived under the Sung, 
followed the craft of an ironsmith. Whenever he was at his work he used to call 
without intermission on the name of Amita Buddha. One day he handed to 
his neighbours the following verses of his own composing to be spread about : — 

Ding-dong ! the hammer-strokes fall long and fast, 
Until the iron turns to steel at last ! 
Now shall the long long Day of Rest begin. 
The Land of Bliss Etemal calls me in. 

Thereupon he died. But his verses spread all over Honan, and many learned to 
call upon Buddha. 

The oldest Chinese iron-works were at Shansi and Chilili in the Ho districts, 
where there are inexhaustible deposits of ore and coal, and where the metal is 
worked to the present day. In 1875 Commissioner Li-hung-Chang, raised from 
the Government-General of Chilili to be Minister of the young King, sent Mr. 
James Henderson to England with orders to bring out the most modern appli- 
ances and apparatus for metal-working. It was proposed to build the new works 
at Tsze-Chow, a town two hundred miles south-west of Tien-tsin, the head-quarters 
of the Governor-General. Mr. Henderson had visited ( 1 874) the establishment near 
Yang-Ching, Shansi, which had before been described by Baron von Richtofen 
and Dr. Williamson.* The iron ore bought at Ping-ding-Chow was found at the 
Royal School of Mines, London, to contain fifty per cent, of iron, loose haematite 
with little or no sulphur. 

M. S^voz, an engineer of mines long resident in Japan, studied iron-working in 
the province of Ykouno.^ He found the people using an imperfect Catalan 

doos, Btl or Baal (?) of the Chaldeans, Yakkveh (?) in the paper which we quote from, indicates the revo- 
of the Canaaniles, Ti-niohr of the ancient Irish, and lution in the deposit of the world's wealth and power, 
Teih-mo of the Chinese,* &c to which such facts, combined with other character- 
* Notes from Mr. Hatdtrson^s Diary during a istics of China, point as probable ; a revolution so 
Ramble through Shansi^ in March 1874, published vast that its contemplation seems like that of a plane- 
by Mr. Day (Appendix D, p. 251). Colonel Yule tary catastrophe.' 
{Marco Polo, ii. 429), alluding to these enormous 

deposits of coal and metal, says : * Baron Richtofen, • Les Mondes, tome xxvi., Dec. 1871. 

I 2 



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ii6 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

method, but able to treat at once sixteen thousand kilogrammes of ore, and 
to produce blooms weighing one thousand three hundred kilogrammes. These 
huge rods were broken up under a hammer constructed in the style of a pile- 
driving ram, to which motion was given by a walking-wheel 11*5 metres in 
diameter, mounted by men. The description does not promise much ; but Japan, 
though holding to her ancient methods in districts unknown to Europeans, pro- 
duces iron cheaper than the English. Of her marvellous Swords I shall treat in 
Part II. 

The people of Madagascar worked iron,* but their name of the metal is Malayan ; 
hence Mr. Crawford traced the art back to Malacca. Yet the Malay did not ex- 
tend it far eastwards : according to Mr. E. B. Tylor,^ * In New Zealand, where there 
Is good iron-ore, there was no knowledge of iron previously to the arrival of Euro- 
peans.' Passing over to the American continent, we find an immense industry of 
copper, but so little iron that, till late years, the indigenes were supposed not to 
have worked it. Ynka mines, however, have been discovered near Lake Titicaca ; 
while excavations in the tumuli of the mysterious * Mound-builders,' who may 
have attempted to reproduce the Egyptian Pyramid, yielded axes described to 
be of * haematite iron-ore,* one of the easiest metals to smelt, and for that reason 
probably one of the first worked. Mr. Day, who figures one of these tool-weapons 
with the hammer-marks (p. 218), supposes it to have been * metallic iron,' pro- 
nouncing haematite ' extremely brittle and absolutely unforgeable.' ' He quotes 
Mr. Charles C. Abbott,* who procured other specimens of aboriginal manufacture 
from the mounds. One hatchet was four and a half inches long by two broad, 
and nearly uniform in thickness, three-sixteenths of an inch ; it had a well-defined 
edge, which from its slightly wavy outline and varied breadth, appeared to be 
hammered, not ground. According to Major Hotchkiss, who owned two other 
similar specimens, a series of four was found under an uprooted tree on an 
Indian trail in West Virginia. 

Fragments of unworked haematite, small and irregular, were used instead of 
flint for arrow-heads.* Mr. Abbott also notices * a curious form of " relic," known 
as a " plummet," occasionally occurring and made of iron ore : one specimen ® 
" is made of iron ore ground down until it is almost as smooth as glass." As such 
" plummets " are found in the Western Mounds, as well as on the surface of the 
ground throughout the Atlantic coast States, and are always polished, it seems 
fair to presume that a cutting instrument of such hard material would undoubtedly 
be polished and ground, if at the time of its manufacture grinding was known or 

" Poly$i€sian Researches (Rev. William Ellis). * From Nature (Sept. 30, 1875) ; quoted by Mr. 

• Researches into the Early History of Mankind^ Day (pp. 217-19). 
p. 167. 

■ Unless greatly mistaken, I have seen iron tools * Flint Chips, by Edmund T. Stevens, p. 553 

made of hsematite near the old Congo Socco gold- (London : Bell & Daldy, 1870). 
mines of Minas Geraes, in the Brazil. Worked h£ema- 

tite is also mentioned in Cyprus by General Palma • The 'plummet* is figured (No. cxxxii.) in the 

(di Cesnola). See chap. ix. AmeriiaM Naturalist (vol. vi. p. 643). 



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IRON IN AFRICA. 117 

practised among the aborigines in fashioning their various weapons and Instru- 
ments.' 

But if the savages and barbarians of Oceania and the New World rarely 
worked iron, the contrary was the case with the equally uncivilised African races, 
negroid and negro, who, however, had the advantage of dwelling within importing 
and imitating distance of Egypt. I have elsewhere noticed the excellent assegai- 
blades of the Bantu (Kafirs) ; nor is this art confined to the southern regions.* 
Dr. Percy justly makes wrought iron the original form, which we see retained in 
the obscurer parts of Asia and Africa. The people always worked by the * direct 
process,' the oldest style ; which, however, is not wholly extinct in Europe. The 
art, quasi-stationary among wild men, treats small quantities at a time : the * vora- 
cious iron-works ' of which Evelyn first speaks, are beyond its wants. Moreover 
it can utilise only rich ores, unlike the ' indirect process ' of producing cast-iron by 
the blast-furnace.^ When the ore is nearly pure, a small addition of carbon would 
convert it into steel ; * and the latter is so easily made, that the wild Hill-peoples 
of Africa and India produce, and have produced from time immemorial, an excellent 
article in the most primitive way. The proportion of charcoal is considerably 
increased, and the blast is applied more slowly than when wrought iron is required. 
The only apparatus wanted for the manufacture is a small clay furnace, four feet 
high by one to two broad, like that used by the South Africans ; charcoal for fuel, 
and a skin with a pipe or twyers of refractory clay for the blast* For the anvil a 
stone-slab suffices, and for the hammer a cube of stone with sides grooved for fibre- 
cords. 

The * Dark Continent ' is emphatically an iron-land, and all explorers have 
noticed its abundance of ore. Mungo Park * mentions the surface ironstone of 
dull red tint with greyish spots used by his * Mandingos ' : Barth confirms his 
assertion by describing magnetic metal about Kuka of the Mandengas, and at 
Jinninau in the Kel-owi or Tawareh country: Durham and Clapperton, when 
near Murzuk, found kidney-shaped lumps upon the surface ; and about Bilma, 

> The people of Camarones River, Bight of » Dr. Percy (pp. 764 et seq.) notices the three 

Biafra, work up old cask and bale hoops into very processes of making steel (iron containing carbon in 

creditable edge-tools and weapons, hoes, knives, and certain proportions) : I. The addition of carbon to 

Swords (Rev. G. Grenfell, Proc. Roy. Geolog, Soc, malleable iron ; 2. The partial decarburisation of 

Oct. 1882). cast iron ; and 3. The addition of malleable iron to 

* The origin of the modem process is still debated. cast iron. 
Agricola («a/. 1494, <^. 1555) notices both malleable 

and cast iron. Dr. Percy (p. 578) quotes from Mr. M. * I borrow from O Muata Cazembe (Kazembe, 

A. Lower {Contributions to Literature^ 6fe. 1854) the King) a rude sketch (p. 38) of one of the better 

that Burwash Church, Sussex, contains a cast-iron kinds of iron-smelting furnaces used by the extensive 

slab of the fourteenth century Mrith ornamental cross Marave race dwelling north of the Zambeze (River of 

and inscription in relief. The same authority de- Fish), which Europeans persist in miswriting Zam» 

Clares that iron cannon were first cast at Buxted desi. The bellows, it will be remarked, are almost of 

(Buckstead in Sussex) by Philip Hoge or Hogge in European shape ; but this peculiarity may be attri- 

1543 (35 Henry VIII.); and that his successor, buted to the artist. 
Thomas Johnson, made ordnance pieces for the Duke 
of Cumberland weighing 6,000 lbs. » Travels, pp. 275-77 (London. 1749). 



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Ii8 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



capital of the Tibbiis, nodules of iron-ore puddinged in the red sandstones — could 
this have been laterite or volcanic mud ? It was the only metal seen in the hills 
of Mandara ; but the Bomuese prefer to import their supply from the neighbouring 
Sudan. Mr. Warren Edwards, who had temporary charge of a Niger expedition, 
observed the natives supporting their cooking-pots over the fire with fragments of 




Fig. 104.— -Iron Smelting Furnace amongst the MarXve People. 

surface ironstone ; and it often struck him (as it does most men) that by some 
such means the smelting-process suggested itself. The metal is abundant in the 
Gaboon country, where the Mpangvve or Fans,' the western outliers of the great 
race, mostly cannibal, holding the heart of Africa, are able workers. They have 
a kind of * fleam-money,' small iron bars shaped somewhat like a large lancet. I 



* Colonel A. Lane Fox ( /'r/w. Warfare, i. 38) be- 
lieves that the * Fans and Kafirs (Caffres) are totally 
different races.' But both speak dialects of the same 
tongue, the great South African language. Modern 



African travellers have traced community of customs 
from north to south, and from east to west, suggesting 
extensive intercourse, in former days, throughout the 
length and breadth of the Dark Continent. 



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IRON IN AFRICA. 119 

came upon the metal everywhere in Unyamwezi, the * Mountains of the Moon/ and 
to this universal presence of ironstone — not to damp and heat— the Portuguese 
attribute the marvellous displays of electricity throughout Central Africa. A whole 
night will pass during which the thunder is never silent ; and the lightning enables 
one to read small print, like an electric light Captain Grant, in his * Walk across 
Africa,' tells us that the people pick up walnut-sized nuggets of iron covered with 
dusty rust, and in a short time produce a spear-head that glistens like steel. My 
fellow-traveller to the Gold Coast, Captain Cameron, when crossing Africa, in most 
places found iron and iron-smelting.* In Kordofan, Mr. Petherick saw a rich 
surface oxide containing from fifty-five to sixty per cent of pure metal. Living- 
stone remarked iron in the eastern regions of Angola,^ and traced it up the Zam- 
beze-line from east to west Mr. C. T. Anderson describes it as occurring in large 
quantities, either of ironstone or pure in a crystallised state. Finally, good old 
Kolben mentions large iron-flakes on the surface near The Cape. 

But, as Colonel A. Lane Fox remarks : ' * Simple heating is not sufficient for 
working iron: a continuous air-blast is required to keep the temperature at a 
certain height* It is interesting to see the means adopted by barbarians for pro- 
curing this necessary ; and, having carefully studied it in various parts of Africa, 
I devote to it the remainder of this chapter. As Pliny repeats from Aristotle, 
* Libya always produces something new.* 

According to Strabo, Anacharsis * the Scythian, who flourished in the days of 
Solon (B.C. 592), invented not only the anchor* and the potter's wheel, but also 
the bellows. In Egypt, however, we find that these discoveries were already a 
thousand years old at least The earliest appearance of the latter is the forge and 
bellows (in Egyptian * H'ati '), depicted on the walls of a tomb in the days of 
Thut-mes III., about B.C. 1500. The workman stands on two bags of skin, such 
as are still used to hold water, alternately weighing upon one and upon the other; 
he inflates them in turns by pulling up a cord which opens a valve, and then he closes 
the hole with his heel. The bellows have twyers, and the illustrations ^ show a 
crucible and a heap of ore : while the material of the H'ati is indicated by its 
determinative, a hide with a tail. This rude contrivance was adopted by the 
Greeks and Romans : hence the * taurini folles ' of Plautus : and Virgil's — 

. . . Alii ventosis follibus auras 
Accipiunt redduntque. — ^n, viii. 449. 

* Across Africa^ chap, xix., July 1874 (Daldy, * Diogenes Laertius tells us of Anacharsis only 
Isbister & Co., London, 1877). that he * wrote also about war.* 

* Missionary Travels ^ p. 402 (London, 1857). * As all savage races show, the original anchor 
■ Anthrop, ColL pp. 128-134. * Specimens ill us- was a stone first bound round like a celt, and then 

p^ting the gec^raphical distribution of corrugated pierced for a rope : hence the • fugitive stone * used 

iron blades, or blades with an ogee section, double by the Argonauts as an anchor (Pliny, xxxvii. 24), 

skin bellows, and iron work.* As regards the c^ee In the spring of 1880 eight stone anchors of modem 

section, the author should have compared it with the shape were found in Piraeus harbour, and were sent 

arrow-heads whose plane sides are ' bellied on a twist ' to the Nautical School at Athens, 
to cause rotation or rifling. • Wilkinson, u 174. Mr. Day, pp. 86, 87. 



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120 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

The wind-bag * would be made of ox-hide, of goat-skin, or of the spoils of smaller 
animals, according to the volume of draught required. And thus, also, would 
originate the bagpipe, an instrument common to almost all original peoples. 

But in the Dark Continent we find still in use an older form than that known 
to Thut-mes, and the earliest of the four several varieties. The late Mr. Petherick 
describes this rude contrivance in Kordofan : * The blast is supplied by skin bags 
worked by hand ; these bags are made of skins, which are flayed by two incisions 
from the tail down to the hocks ; the skin, being drawn over the body, is cut off at 
the neck, which makes the mouth of the bag. After tanning, the hind legs are cut 
off, and each side of the skin sewn on to a straight piece of stick ; loops are placed 
on the outside for the fingers of the operator to pass through. It can be opened 
and closed at pleasure ; the neck is secured to a tube of baked clay, and four men 
or boys seated round the cupola, each with a bellows of this primitive description, 
produce a blast by opening the bags when drawing them towards them, and 
closing them quickly, push them forward ; by which means the compressed bags 
discharge the air through the tubes into the furnace, quick alternate movements of 
the arms of the operator producing a blast, which throws out a flame about a foot 
high from the top of the furnace ; and the slag with the metal is allowed to collect 
in a hole beneath it' Casalis similarly describes the Basuto bellows, and Mungo 
Park that of Mandenga-land ; Browne saw it in Ddr-For,* and Clapperton in Kuka 
and in the Highlands of Mandara, where the anvil was a coarse bloom of iron, and 
the hammers two lumps weighing about two pounds each. This is the bellows 
of Kathiawad ^ and of Kolapor in the Deccan, where Captain Graham notices 
that the ntjis or tubes for the blast are clay mixed with burnt and powdered flint. 
Mr. E. B. Tylor found it used by a travelling tinker at Paestum. 

The second and improved variety of African bellows was described by myself 
during a visit to Yoruban Abeokuta. It deserves attention because it is a notable 
step in progress, leading to a further development ; the troughs are a rudimentary 
cylinder, and the handles form an incipient piston.* * The two bags of goatskin 
are made fast in a frame cut out of a single piece of wood ; the upper part of each 
follis has, by way of handle, a stick two feet long, so that it can be worked by one 
man either standing or sitting. The handles are raised alternately by the blower, 
so that when one receives the air, the other ejects it ; the form is like that used 
on the Gold Coast ; and there is a perpendicular screen of dried clay through 
which the nozzle of the bellows passes, supplying a regular blast' 

Evidently in this stage of the bellows, the lower halves of the leather bags are 
useless : the result would be the same if only the upper part of the wooden 

* Hence, too, we see our * bellows '«■* bellies.' admirably surveyed it, and died at Cairo in i88i. 

* This word is curiously corrupted in Europe. • Vuigo Kattywdr ; described in 1842 by Captain 
It is formed upon the model of D4r-Wadai, &c. ; (the late Sir G. Le Grand) Jacob in his Report on 
and means the abode, region, home {Ddr) of the GuzcitU (Gujarat). 

For tribe. My lamented friend General Purdy * The slicks correspond with the strings on the 

(Pasha) formerly of the United Stales Army, bellows of the Egyptian monuments. 



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THE BELLOWS IN AFRICA, 



121 



troughs were covered with skin, air-tight but loose enough to make play. This 
third step has been taken by the Djour (Jur) tribes of the Upper Nile, in north 
latitude 20°, and it is thus described by Mr. Petherick: *The blast-pipes are 
made as usual of burnt clay, and are attached to earthen vessels about eighteen 
inches in diameter and six inches in height, covered with a loose, dressed goat- 
skin, tied tightly round them and perforated with a few holes, in the centre of 
which is a loop to contain the fingers of the operator. A lad, sitting between two 
of these vessels, by a rapid alternate vertical motion drives a continuous current of 
air into the furnace.' 

This brings us to the fourth and last stage of African blast-improvement 
(fig. 105). Here the rudely-hewn wooden tube becomes a 
double-barrelled forcing-pump. The two air-vessels with 
their loose skin-coverings are attached to each base of the 
two central pipes that join into one. Such is the shape used 
in Madagascar, the cylinders being of bamboo, five feet 
long by two inches in diameter, and the piston a stick 
ending in a bunch of feathers. 

The bellows described by Dampier in Mindanao and 
elsewhere in the Malay Archipelago, is evidently borrowed 
from the Madagascar type ; and into Borneo, Siam, and 
New Guinea a hollowed trunk takes the place of the 
bamboos. The sculptures in the Sukuh-temple of Java, 
attributed to the fifteenth century, represent smiths 
making Kr/ses (Creases), the bellows being worked by 
another man, who holds a piston upright in each hand. 
Colonel A. Lane Fox is of opinion that the sculptures 
'possibly point to a Hindu origin for this particular contrivance.* I agree 
with him, but I would also trace the Asiatic article back to its old home in 
Africa — Egypt. 

The nature of fuel was determined by the supply of the country. That of 
Egypt probably consisted of cattle-chips, a material still used by the Fellahs. A 
later allusion to this article is found in the legend of * Wieland Smith ' : he mixes 
iron-filings with the meal eaten by his geese, carefully collects the droppings, and 
out of them forges a blade which cuts a wool-flock or cleaves a man to the belt 
without turning edge. 

I conclude this chapter with the following table,* printed by Mr. Day at the 
end of his * High Antiquity of Iron and Steel.' It gives at one view the languages, 
the characters, the phonetic values, the English equivalents, and the oldest known 
dates of the metals to which he refers. I differ from him in sundry points, and 
these I have taken the liberty to point out in italics. 




Fig. 105. — Portable African 
Bellows. 



• IroH^ Jan. 8, 1876. 



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122 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



General Table of Terms. 



Lamcuagb 


Charactbrs 


Phonbtic Valub 


English 
Equivalbnt 


Oldest known 

DATE OP 


Namb 


Family 


Egyptian 
Hieroglyphs. 


Hamitic, 

with 
Semitic 
Infusion. 


J.!. 
M 


Ba. 
Ba. 
Ba*a. 
Ba'aenpe. 
Bet 


Earth, 
Metal. 

Iron. 

Iron, 
Earth. 

Iron. 
Iron. 


2200 

to 

2300 
B.C. 

{B.C. 4300 t) 


Akkadian. 


Semitic 


ear 


Hurud. 


Iron. 


[Oldest Monu- 
ments, at least 

2000 B.C 
I {b.c:4000?) 


Assyrian. 


<<} 


Eru. 


Iron. 


Hebrew. 


nenru 


n'ghoshah 

barzel 

barzel yashuth 

barzel mutzaq 


Steel. 

Iron. 
Bright Iron. 
Cast Iron. 


From 
1500 

B.C. 

downwards. 


Chinese.* 


Sporadic 

or 

AUophyllian 

( Turanian). 


m 


Low, Lowe. 

Tie (pro- 
nounced Tit). 

Kin. 


Steel. 
Iron. 

Metal. 

1 Iron- 
( masters. 


2000 

B.C. 


Sanskrit 


Aryan. 




Ara. 
Ayas. 


Iron. 
Iron. 


Oldest Sanskrit. 

Probably 

B.C. 1500. 

{B.C. 400 f) 


Greek. 


Kvavoi 


Khalyps. 
Sideros. 

Cyanos. 

Adamas. 


Steel. 

Iron. 

(Blue Metal, 

prob. tem- 

tpered Steel. 

Steel. 


Homeric 
Age. 

Hesiod. 



' I observe that M. Terrien de la Couperie has lately derived the oldest civilisation of China from 
Chaldwo- Babylonia of the Akkadian Ages, B c. 2400-2300. 



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123 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE SWORD: WHAT IS IT? 

Having now reached the early Iron Age, which ends pre-historic annals, it is 
advisable to answer the question — * What is a Sword ? * 

The word — a word which, strange to say, has no equivalent in French — is the 
Scandinavian Svard (Icel. Sver^) ; the Danish Svaerd ; the Anglo-Saxon Sweord 
and Suerd ; the Old German Svert, now Schwert, and the Old English and Scotch 
Swerd. The westward drift of the Egyptian Sf, Sefi, Sayf, Sfet, and Emsetf, gave 
Europe its generic term for the weapon.* The poetical is 'brand' or *bronde,' from 
its brightness or burning ; another name is * laufi,' * laf,' or * glaive,' derived through 
French from the Latin gladius. Of especial modem forms there are the Espadon, 
the Flamberg, Flammberg, or Flamberge,* the Stoccado, and the Braquemart ; the 
Rapier and the Claymore, the Skeyne and Tuck, the small-Sword and the fencing- 
foil, beside other varieties which will occur in the course of the following pages. 
* Sword ' includes * Sabre,' which may also derive from the Egyptian through the 
Assyrian Sibirru and Akkadian Sibir, also written Sapara ; our * Sabre ' is the Arabic 
Sayf with the Scandinavian terminative r (Sayf-r). Manage would derive Sabre from 
the Armoric Sabrenn : Littr^ has the Spanish Sable, the Italian Sciabola, Sciabla, 
and in Venice Sabala, from the German Sable or Sabel, which again identifies with 
other languages, as the Serb Sablja and the Hungarian Szdblya. The chief modem 
varieties of the curved blade are the Broadsword, the Backsword, the Hanger, and 
the Cutlass, the Scymitar and Diisack, the Yataghan and the Flissa. These 
several modifications will be considered in the order of their invention. Lastly the 
Egyptian * Sfet ' originated through Keltic the word Spata or Spatha ' (Spatarius 
= a Swordsman) conserved to the present day in the neo-Latin names of the 
straight foining weapon— espada, esp^, esp^e, ^p^e. 

Physically considered, the Sword is a metal blade intended for cutting, thrusting, 
or cut-and-thmst (^fil et pointe). It is usually, but not always, composed of two 

' Major J'ahns (p. 416) would derive Schwert In the hebraising days Sword was derived from 

( = das Sausende^ Schwirrende,^ i.e. whizzing) from Sharat, to scratch, and Sabre from Shabar, to shiver, 
the Sansk. svar^ noise ; and considers it originally a * Of the Flamberge and the * flamboyant/ or wavy 

missile pure and simple. He quotes Isidore, who blade, more hereafter. 

explains rhofH^Aaa by Tva/an ; ScAzvert znd/ra/ftea— ■ Muratori (Antiq, ii. 487) notes, '• Spntam sive 

aUa vel gladius ; ensis^Aevas, hevassa; mucrom sponfonem, and s/on/o, spunto, i,e, /ugh* {Adelung), 

sivert, gladius ^waf an ; culler ^wafansaJtSj sahse. Of x/a/i4a more to come. 



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124 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

parts. The first and principal is the blade proper {la lame, la lama, die Klinge), 
Its cutting surface is called the edge (Jefil, ilfilOy die Schdrfey and its thrusting end 
is the point (Ja pointe, la punta, die Spitze or der Ort, the latter mostly opposed to 
the Mund or sheath-mouth). 

The second part, which adapts the weapon for readier use, is the hilt, hilts or 
heft {la manche, la manica, dieHilse or das Heft), whose several sections form a com- 
plicated and a prodigiously varied whole. The grip is the outer case of the tang, 
alias the tongue {la soie, la spina, or il codolo ; der Stoss, die Angel, die Griff sunge 
or der Dom), the thin spike which projects from the shoulders or thickening of the 
blade {le talon or tipaulement, il talone, der Ansatz or die Schulter) at the end 
opposed to the point Sometimes there are two short teeth or projections from 
the angles of the shoulders, and these are called * the ears ' in English, in German, 
and in the neo-Latin tongues. 

The tang, which is of many shapes — long and short, straight-lined or curvilinear, 
plain or pierced for attachment — ends in the pommel or 'little apple' {le pommeau, 
il pomolo, der Knauf or Knopf), into which it should be made fast by rivets or 
screws. The object of this globe, lozenge, or oval of metal is to counterpoise the 
weight of the blade, to prop the ferient of the hand, and to allow of artistic 
ornamentation. The grip of wood, bone, horn, ivory, metal, valuable stones, and 
other materials, covered with skin, cloth, and various substances, whipped round 
with cord or wire, is protected at the end abutting upon the * chape * ^ or guard 
proper {la garde, la guardia, die Parirstangen, die Leiste or die Stichbldtter) by the 
hilt-piece, which also greatly varies. It may, however, be reduced to two chief 
types — the guard against the thrust, and the guard against the cut. The former 
was originally a plate of metal, flat or curved, circular or oval, affixed to the 
bottom of the hilt, dividing the shoulders from the tang : in fact, it was a 
shield in miniature {la coquille, la coccia, das Stickblatt). We still use the term 

* basket-hilt,' and apply * shell * {la coqiie, la coccia, der Korb or die Schale) to the 
semicircular hilt-guards— mostly of worked, chased, embossed, or pierced steel — 
which appear to perfection in the Spanish and Italian rapiers of the sixteenth 
century. This hilt-plate has dwindled in the French fencing-foil to a lunette, 
a double oval of bars shaped like a pair of spectacles. In the Italian foil, which 
preserves the plate, the section of the blade between that and the grip is called 

* Or * die Schmidt,^ the older forms being ehke, the chape^ the belt, and the buckles * (of aT Sword). 
egge\ while ^valz* was the middle section of the two- Skinner explains it as vagina mturo ferreus, Mr. 
handed Sword. Fairholt defines chape to be the guard- plate or cross- 
bar at the junction of grip and hilt. Shakespeare, 

* * Chape,* derived from eapa, and a congener of who knew the Sword, speaks of the ^ chape of his 

• cap ' and * cape,' is differently used by authors. dagger ' {AWs iVcll 6x*c, Iv. 3) and « an old rusty 
Some apply it to the mouthpiece or ring at the top of Sword with a broken hilt and chapeUsse ' ( Taming of 
the sheath ; others to the metal crampet, bouterolle, the ShrcWy iii. 2). Commentators mostly explain this 
or ferule at the scabbard-tip, and others to the by 'without a catch to hold it.* Dr. Evans (-^nw«^, 
guard-plate. In Durfey (7'A^ Marriage- HcUer £r'r. chap, viii.) has exhaustively described the bronze 
Matched) we find • the hilt, the knot, the scabbard, chapes (bouterolles; in the British Islands. 



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WHAT IS THE SWORD? 



125 




the Ricasso (a) ; the parallel bar is the VeUe traversale (^, V) ; and the two are 
connected by the archetti d unione (joining bows, r, c). 

The guard against the cut is technically called the cross- 
guard {les quillons} k vette^ die Stichbldtter), This section 
is composed of one or more bars projecting from the hilt 
between tang and blade, and receiving the edge of the 
adversary's weapon should it happen to glance or to glide 
downwards. The quillons may be either straight (fig. 109) — 
that is, disposed at right angles — or curved (fig. 107). When 
the two horns bend down from the handle-base towards the 
point they are called i antennes. Others are turned up 
towards the hilt, counter-curved or inversed — that is, faced 
in opposite directions — or fantastically deformed (fig. no). 

Opposed to the guard proper is the bow or counter-guard (Ja contregarde, Pelsa, 
la contraguardiay der Biigel), It is of two chief kinds. In the first the quillons 
are recurved towards the pommel : the second is a bar or system of bars con- 
necting the pommel with the quillons (fig. 108); The former defends the fingers, 



Fig. 106. 
The Italian Foiu 






Fig. lo-r. 
PoMMKi.; b. puiLXX>Ns; 
c. Pas o'anb. 



Fig. 108. 
DouBLS Guard (Guaiio and 

CoUNTBKGaAKoX 



Fig. 109. 
Straight 
Quillons 
AND Loops. 



Fig 110. 
Fantastic Form. 



the latter serves to protect, especially from the cut, the back of the hand and the 
outer wrist This modification, unknown to the ancients of Europe, became a 
favourite in the sixteenth century, and it is still found in most of our actual hilts. 
Another product of the early modern age is the pas ddne? At the end of the 

en forme conique, quUleJ" Burn translates quillan 
* cross-bar of the hilt of an infantry or light-cavalry 
Sword.' 

* Tliis must not be written, as by some English 
authors, pas d'aru.^ * Pas (Tdnt^ instrument avec 
lequel on maintient ouverie la bouche du cheval 
pour rexamincr.* Littr^ has: 'Pas d&ru, nom 
donn^. dans les ^p*?es du xviime sikle, i des pi^es 



' A congener of our * quill,* from the Lat. caulis, 
a stalk. Littre is not satisfactor} i 'Quillon {ki-Uon, 
11 mouill^es), s.m. Partie de la monture du sabre 
ou de r^p^, situ^ du c6te oppos^ aux branches, et 
dont Tcxtr^mit^ est arrondie. D^riv^ de quille* 
(cone) *par assimilation de forme* (in fact, incre- 
mentative of) « quille. Etym. G^nev. quille ; de 
I'anc. haut-allcm. Ke^l ; allem. Ke^eh o^'jet allonge 



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126 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

fourteenth century it was composed of two circular or oval-shaped bars, disposed 
on both sides of, and partly over, the fort of the blade. In the sixteenth century 
it was generally adopted, and became a complicated and highly-decorated adjunct 
to the handle. The /or d^dne is now almost obsolete : a relic remains in our army- 
claymore.' 

We may divide the shapes of blade into two typical forms with their minor 
varieties : 

I. The curved blade (sabre, shable, broadsword, backsword, cutlass, hanger, 
scymitar,* Diisack, Yataghan, Flissa, &c) is 

a. Edged on both sides (Abyssinian). 

b. „ concave side (old Greek, Kukkri). 

c. „ convex (common sabre). 

II. The straight blade (Espadon, Flammberg, Stoccado, Braquemart, rapier, 
claymore, skeyne, tuck, small-sword, &c.) : the varieties are : 

a. The cut-and-thrust, one- or two-handed. 

b. The broad and unpointed (headman's instrument). 

c. The narrow, used only for the point 

It is hardly advisable to make a third type of the half-curved blade, adapted 
equally for tac et tailU (cutting and thrusting), which we find in ancient Assyria, 
in India, and in Japan. It evidently connects both shapes. 
The following diagram shows the three forms : • 

Tanj ^Shoulder ,, V'' .,>'' 



Strong tHaJf Strong \ Half Weak ' ' 'j rt^^^fe -^ 

Fic. III. 

I have given precedence to the curved blade because cutting is more familiar 
to man than thrusting. Human nature strikes ' rounders ' until severe training 
teaches it to hit out straight from the shoulder. Again, the sabre-form would 
naturally be assumed by the sharpened club during the wooden age of imperfect 
edges ; and the penetrating power would be weak and almost ni/ when the point 
was merely a fire-hardened stick. 

de la garde qui sont en forme d'anneau, et qui vont » The word is originally the Persian Shamshfr 

des quillons 4 la lame. " Le Seigneur le prit et mit /aa\, ,^,. « 

. J ,1 1 i- 11- » »' • \ ■»*-*♦ 1*1/ : but as the Greeks have no sh sound, it 

un pied sur la lame , . . alors CoUmet s ecna : V- ' ' 

Venez voir, messieurs, le grand miracle que Ton fait k made its way into Europe curiously disguised. Jean 

mon ^p^ ; je Tai apport^ ici avec une simple poig- Chartier (temp. Charles VII.) says, ^ Sauvtttrres ou 

n^ et sans garde defensive, et voilk maintenant que cimtierres qui s<mt manih'e tTesp^e d la Turque,^ 

Ton y met le plus beau pas d*&ne du monde."' Saieveterre became in Italian sah>aterra\ and in 

Francion^ vi. p. 237 : « Pas d'&ne, nom vulgaire du England scymiiar was further degraded to semitarge, 

tussilage, i cause de la feuille.' I have no objection to scimitar ^ but scymitar is the 

older form. 
* The Scottish basket-hilt, however, requires im- 
provement, as it does not allow free play to hand or • See note al the end of this chapter, 
wrist 



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CUT AND THRUST, 127 

Yet there is no question of superiority between the thrust and the cut. As the 
diagram * shows, A, who dehVers point, has an advantage in time and distance 
over B, who uses edge. Indeed, the man who first * gave point ' made a discovery 



Fig. ita. 

which more than doubled the capability of his weapon. Vegetius tells us that the 
Roman victories were owing to the use of the point rather than the cut : ' When 
cutting, the right arm and flank are exposed, whereas during the thrust the body 
is guarded, and the adversary is wounded before he perceives it* Even now it is 
remarked in hospitals that punctured wounds in the thorax or abdomen generally 
kill, while the severest incisions often heal. Hence Napoleon Buonaparte, at 
Aspronne, ordered the cavalry of the Guard to give point. General Lamorici^re, a 
scientific soldier, recommended for cavalry a cylindrical blade, necessarily without 
edge, and to be used only for the thrust : practical considerations, however, 
prevented its adoption. Moreover, the history of the * white arm * tells us that the 
point led to the guard or parry proper, and this * defence with the weapon of 
offence ' completed the idea of the Sword as now understood in Europe. 

Again, the peoples who fought from chariots and horseback — Egyptians, 
Assyrians, Indians, Tartars, Mongols, Turks, and their brethren the * white Turks * 
(Magyars or Hungarians), Sarmatians, and Slavs — preferred for the best of reasons 
the curved type. The straight Sword, used only for thrusting, is hard to handle 
when the horse moves swiftly ; and the broad straight blade loses its value by the 
length of the plane along which it has to travel. On the other hand, the bent 
blade collects, like the battle-axe, all the momentum at the * half-weak,' or centre 
of percussion, where the curve is greatest Lastly, the ' drawing-cut ' would be 
easier to the mounted man, and would most injure his enemy. 

On the other hand, the peoples of southern latitudes — for instance, those 
dwelling around the Mediterranean, the focus of early civilisation, where the 
Sword has ever played its most brilliant and commanding part— are active and 
agile races of light build and comparatively small muscular power. Consequently 
they have generally preferred, and still prefer, the pointed weapon, whose deadly 

* As usual, the diagram is an exa^eration. It gonist's breast, not his eye ; nor is it necessary to raise 
directs the thrusting weapon too low, at the anta- the hand so high in order to deliver the cut. 



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128 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

thrust can be delivered without requiring strength and weight For the inverse 
reason the sons of the north would chose the Espadon proper, the long, straight, 
ponderous, two-edged blade which suited their superior stature and power of 
momentum. 

Such is the geographical and ethnological view of Sword-distribution, but it 
gives a rule so general that a multitude of exceptions must be expected. As far 
as we know, the civilised Sword originated in Egypt, but it had many different 
centres of development A gradual and continuous progress can be traced in its 
history till it was superseded by an even older form of attack— the * ballistic' Yet 
some of the earliest blades show the best forms, and the line of advancement at 
times becomes distorted or even broken. Again, many Southrons, and races that 
fought on foot, have used the curved weapon, although the converse, the adoption 
of the straight, pointed Sword by horsemen, is comparatively rare. 

I now proceed to consider various points connected with the curved and straight 
forms of blade. The experience of the Sword-cutter has noticed that the shape of 
any pattern or model, whether of tool or of weapon, suggests its own and only 
purpose. This is what we should expect A swordsman chooses his Sword as a 
sawyer his saw. Show the mechanic a new chisel, and its form at once explains 
to him its use : he learns by the general shape, the edge-angle, the temper, the 
weight, and similar considerations, that it is not made to drive nails, nor to bore 
holes, and that it is intended to cut wood or soft substances. Thus, too, the form 
of the Sword is determined by the duty expected of it 

The Sword has three main uses, cutting, thrusting, and guarding. If these 
qualifications could be combined, there would be no difficulty in determining the 
single best shape. But unfortunately— perhaps I should say fortunately — each 
requisite interferes to a great extent with the other. Hence the various modifica- 
tions adopted by different peoples, and hence the successive steps of progress. 

The simplest and most effective form of trenchant instrument intended for 
cutting only is the American broad-axe used by squatters in the backwoods. This 
revival of the proto-historic celt and headman's instrument is a plain, heavy wedge 
of steel, fixed on a light, tough wooden helve or heft, thus concentrating all the 
force in the head that strikes the blow. Here there is no uncertainty about the 
use ; and, were it not necessary in swordsmanship to * recover guard ' and to save 
self as well as disable the assailant, it would be the best, as it is one of the oldest, 
weapons derived from the club. But the cutting Sword, which in the short curved 
form is its congener, has a long blade that allows a choice of cut — a good choice 
and a bad choice. If the blow be made, for instance, at a tree-branch with the 
Sword-point (the * whole-weak *), its sole effect will be to jar wrist and arm un- 
pleasantly. The same result will follow a blow with the * whole-strong.' In either 
case the vibration of the blade shows a waste of strength. By the experiment of 
cutting along the entire length, inch after inch, and by comparing the effect, the 
swordsman comes at last to a point, about the end of the * half-weak,* speaking 



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THE CENTRE OF PERCUSSION. 129 

« 

roughly, where there is no jar, and where, consequently, the whole force of the 
blow becomes effective. But our * centre of percussion * must not be confounded 
with the * centre of gravity.* This balance-position is situated in the middle of the 
* whole-strong,* the proper part for guarding, and for guarding only. 

The late Mr. Henry Wilkinson, of London, a practical man of science, first 
proposed a formula for determining the centre of percussion without the tedious 
process of experimenting with each and every blade. His system was based upon 
the properties of the pendulum. A light rod, exactly 39*2 inches long, capped 
with a heavy leaden ball, and swung to and fro upon a fixed centre, vibrates 
seconds or sixty times per minute in the latitude of London, and the three centres 
of percussion, of oscillation, and of gravity are concentrated within the ball If 
it were a mathematical pendulum — a rod without weight — these three points would 
lie precisely in the core of the ball, or 39*2 inches from the place of suspension. 
The blade, to be graduated, is suspended, tight-fastened at the point on which it 
would turn when making a cut, and is converted by swinging into a pendulum. As 





LvCi'of'JnipMXilu 

y 
CO 

Fio. 113. — Thk Infantry 'Regulation* Sword. 
CG. Centre of Gravity ; c.p. Centre of Percussion. 

the length is shorter, so the oscillations are quicker : the blade makes eighty move- 
ments to sixty of the pendulum. A simple formula determines the length of such 
an eighty-vibrations pendulum to be twenty-two inches. This distance, measured 
from the point at which the blade was suspended, is marked on the back as the 
centre of percussion, where there is no jar, and where the most effective cut can be 
delivered. 

Again, an examination of the axe shows that the cutting edge lies considerably 
in advance of the wrist and hand, with the effect of carrying the edge well forward 
on the * line of direction,' which, in the Sword, passes directly from pommel to 
point If the edge were at the back the tendency of the weapon would be to fall 
away from the line of cut, and this could be overcome only by a certain amount of 
wasted force. In nearly all curved Swords, except the Japanese, some contrivance 
is made to give the feeling which we express by * the edge leading well forward ' ; 
and this point has been carefully studied by nations whose attack is the cut. 
Usually the line of hilt is thrown forward so as to form an angle with the axis of 
the blade, and the former is made obtuser or acuter in proportion as the latter is 
more or less curved. By balancing the weapon upon the pommel the effect becomes 
evident ; the edge falls forward like that of the axe. 

The superiority of the curved blade for cutting purposes is easily proved. In 
every cut the edge meets its object at some angle, and the penetratirtg portion 

K 



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130 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



becomes a wedge. But this wedge is not disposed at right angles with the Sword : 
the angle is more or less oblique according to the curvature, and consequently it 

cuts with an acuter edge. The accom- 
panying figures of a ' scymitar * and a clay- 
more, both trenchant blades, prove that, 
were the edge to describe a right line (A B) 
directed at any object (c), it would act as a 
wedge (d), measuring exactly the breadth 
of the blade. But the curve throws the 
edge more forward, and thus the 'half- 
weak' acts like a wedge (e), which is 
^ . longer and consequently more acute, the 

^^,'''''\\^ extreme thickness (that of the back or 

base) being a fixed measure. Similarly, 
by cutting still nearer the ' weak * or point, 
the increased curvature gives a more pro- 
longed and acuter cuneiform (f). Com- 
paring the three sections of the same 
blade (d E f), which differ only in the 
angle at which the edge is supposed to 
meet the obstacle, we see the enormous 
gain of cutting power. 

The difference between the direct and 

Fig. IIS.-CLAYMOIW. the oblique cut is still better shown by the 

annexed diagram: 'Let A BCD (fig. ii6) 

represent the portion of a Sword-blade, of which A B is the edge and c D the 

back, measuring about one-eighth of an inch in thickness. Now, if the object to 




Fio. 114.— Scymitar. 




r 




a 

Fig 117. 



be cut through is presented to the blade at right angles to the edge, as shown 
by arrow No. i, then the section of the blade with which the cut is to be 



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SECTIONS OF SWORD-BLADES, 



131 



effected will be as represented in the triangular section F E G (fig. 1 17). But if the 
object be presented to the blade obliquely, as shown by arrow No. 2, then the 
section along the line of the cut will be as represented by the angle C E K. It will 
readily be seen that in the latter case the acuteness of the angle at E is greatly 
increased, whilst the substance is the same as in the other case. To effect this it 
is the custom in many parts of the East to strike with a drawing cut, but the same 
purpose is secured by bending the blade backwards : the curve itself presents the 
edge obliquely to the object without entailing the necessity of imparting a drawing 
motion to the stroke.' * 

Par parenthksey it is this drawing motion which, added to the curve of the 
weapon and its oblique presentation, increases the trenchant power. The * Talwdr,' 
or half-curved sabre of Hindustan, cuts as though it were four times as broad and 
only one-fourth the thickness of the straight blade. But the * drawing-cut ' has the 
additional advantage of deepening the wound and of cutting into the bone. Hence 
men of inferior strength and stature used their blades in a manner that not a little 
astonished and disgusted our soldiers in the Sind and Sikh campaigns. 

If we consider the sections of cutting weapons, we find them all modifications of 
that most ancient mechanical contrivance, the wedge, as shown by the following 
figures : 

1.9 4 5 






6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 




10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 

niiiin 



Fic. 118.— Sections of Sworz>-Blaobs. 

The first form (fig. 1 18) is the wedge that would be produced by taking for base the 
dorsal thickness of an ordinary blade, and by continuing it in an even line to the 
apex of the triangle— the point. The two sides meet at an angle of nine degrees ; 
consequently the edge lacks the thickness, weight, and strength necessary for 
every cutting tool. For soft substances it should range from ten to twenty 



» Quoted from Mr. John Latham by Colonel A. 
Lane Fox, Anthrop, ColL p. 171. Concernmg the 
drawing cut and its reverse, the thrusting cut, I shall 



have more to say when treating of the * Damascus ' 
blade in Part II. 



K 2 



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132 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

degrees, as in the common dinner knife. An angle of twenty-five to thirty-five 
degrees, being the best for wood-working, is found in the carpenter's plane and 
chisel. For cutting bone the obtuseness rises to forty degrees, and even to 
ninety ; the latter being the fittest for shearing metals, and the former for Sword- 
blades, which must expect to meet with hard substances. But even an angle of 
forty degrees will be ineffectual upon a thick head, unless the cut be absolutely 
true. No. 2 illustrates the angle of resistance (forty degrees) and the entering 
angle (ninety degrees). No. 3 shows that the true wedge of forty degrees is too 
thick and heavy for use, requiring some contrivance for lightening the blade, while 
preserving the necessary angle of resistance. The remaining sections display the 
principal modes of effecting this object. In Nos. 4 and 6 the angle is carried 
in a curved and bulging line, thus giving the section a bi-convex form. When the 
back or base is flat this is the Persian and Khordsdni, vulgarly called the * Damascus 
blade.* When baseless and two-edged it is the old * Toledo ' rapier — two shallow- 
crowned arches meeting (3^, fig. 1 24). In both cases the weapon is strong, but some- 
what overweighted. In the next shapes (Nos. S and 7), the two sides are cut away 
to a flat surface and represent the *Talwdr' of India. When this flat surface is 
hollowed, as by the black lines of No. S (compare No. 8), we have the bi-concave 
section, as opposed to the bi-convex. This hollowing of the wedge into two broad 
grooves from the angle of resistance is one of the forms assumed by the English 
' regulation ' Sword : it was considered the lightest for a given breadth and thick- 
ness, but it is by no means the strongest, and there are sundry technical objections 
to it. 

The remaining blades in the illustration are grooved in as many different ways. 
The function of the cannelure is to obviate over-flexibility ; it also takes from the 
weight and adds to the strength. By channelling either side of a thin or * whippy * 
blade it becomes stiffer, because any force applied to bend such a blade sideways 
meets with the greatest amount of resistance that form can supply. Mechanically 
speaking, it is to crush an arch inwards upon its crown, and the deeper the arch 
the greater the resistance. Hence the narrow groove is preferable to a broader 
channel of the same depth. No. 9, hollowed on each side near the base, is a 
good old form, superior to the * regulation * (No. 8) : its weak point, the space 
between the grooves where the metal is thinnest, lies in the best place— near the 
back, where strength and thickness are least required. No. 10, though somewhat 
lighter, doubles its weak points. No. 11 is better in this respect: it has three 
grooves which are far shallower, and consequently the metal between them is 
thicker. The same remark applies to Nos. 12 and 13, which are sections of 
claymores, single- and treble-grooved. 

No. 14 shows an ingenious method of obviating the weakness caused by deep 
cannelures : it is the section of a blade made at Klingenthal (not * Klegenthal '), 
the Sword manufactory established by Napoleon Buonaparte in Elsass-Lothringen. 
Two very marked grooves are cut in the metal, but not directly opposite each 



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SECTIONS OF SWORD-BLADES. 



133 




^i 



^■^U- 



other, and thus the channels can touch and even overlap the axial line. This 
disposition gives great stiffness, but, as testing shows, the edge is deficient in cutting 
power, probably from loss of force by vibration. 

Nos. 15 and 16 are experimental blades. The former has the groove placed 
in the base, preserving the wedge-sides intact ; but there is great difficulty about 
grinding this shape, and, the resistance of the arch-crown being wanting, there is 
a small increase of stiffening — the Sword, in fact, * springs ' almost as readily as the 
straight form. No. 16 has some good points, but, on the whole, the combination is 
a failure. Lastly, No. 17, the old * ramrod-back * regulation blade, is perhaps the 
worst of all : the sudden change 
from the thick round base to the 
thin sharp edge makes an equal 
tempering very difficult, and the 
weapon cleverly undoes its own 
work, the base acting as check or 
stop to the cut. 

Remains now to consider the 
Sword as a weapon for point, a 
use to which, as its various shapes 
show, it was applied in the earliest 
ages instinctively, as it were, be- 
fore Science taught the superiority 
of the thrust to the cut. We 
learn from such hand-thrusting 
instruments — the awl, gimlet, 
needle, and dinner-fork — that 
the straight weapon may be con- 
sidered a very acute wedge with 
a method of progression mostly 
oblique. It is easy to prove 
that the proper shape for a 
thrusting-blade is pre-eminently 
the straight Fig. 119 shows the 
foil making a hole exactly its own 
size. The 'regulation' Sword (fig. 120), a shallow curve, opens, when moving in 
a direct line, about double its own width ; a figure which the scymitar (fig. 121) 
increases to five or six times, with a proportionate loss of depth at the same 
expenditure of force. This augmented resistance to penetration is one, but only 
one, of the many difficulties in using a curved blade for a straight thrust 

This difficulty probably suggested the * curved thrust,' a method of pointing 
which the foil, as opposed to the rapier, has made popular. The point is propelled, 
not in a straight line, but in the arc of a circle more or less curved to correspond 



l~- 



n 



\i 




Fig. 1x9. 

Foil with 

French Guard. 



Fig. 1 90. 

Regulation Sword 

roK Infantry. 



Fig. I2Z. 
Scymitar-Shapb. 



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134 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



with the blade. The arm makes this cycloidal movement readily enough, but 
under a disadvantage ; as in the cut the space traversed is longer than what is 
absolutely necessary to reach the object. Moreover, the movement cannot well be 
applied to the lunge, so as to throw the weight of the body into the attack. Like 
the * thrusting-cut,' it is more fitted for horseback than for foot Although doubt- 
less the best way of pointing with a curvilinear blade, in no case is it better than 

the straight thrust 

The ' curved thrust ' so imposed upon 

Colonel Marey, of the French army, that 

he proposed in an elaborate work on 

Swords (Strasburg, 1841) to adopt the 

Yataghan, whose beautifully curved line of 

blade coincides accurately with the motion 

of the wrist in cutting, and which he held 

At ffiVf wll ^^ ^ equally valuable for the point As 

) I IeB'/ Ik 11 * regulation Sword for infantry, it was 

i^ HMl JhIs spoilt by a cheap iron scabbard. As a 

bayonet it lost all its distinctive excel- 
lence : the forward weight, so valuable in 
cutting with the hand, made it heavy and 
unmanageable at the end of a musket, 
/ VSI\ WK ^"d non^ but the strongest arms could use 

/ wK wHh| it, especially when the thrust had to be 

/ HK\ vH^ * lanced out.* Yet it lasted for a quarter of 

a century, and only in 1875 it was super- 
seded by the triangular weapon attached 
to the fusil Gras} 

Fig. 124 shows sections of the prin- 
cipal forms of thrusting blades. No. i, 
whose section, a lozenge, is nearly square, 
consists of two obtuse-angled wedges joined 
at the bases, making a strong, stiff, and 
lasting, but very heavy, Sword. This 
form dates from the earliest times : we find it in the bronze rapiers of France 
and England, and it was preserved in many of the Toledan, Bilbao, Zaragosan, 
Solingen, and Italian rapiers ; it is known to English armourers as the * Saxon,* 




Fig. laa.— Yataghan. 



Fig. 123.— Ornamental 
Yataghan and Sheath. 



* The section of the modem weapon shows that 
the bdionnette Gras is fit only for the thrust ; and, as it 
stops its own cut, it is useless for the menial and 
servile offices in which the Yataghan-bayonet, like the 
old coupC'choux Sword, did yeoman's service. I can 
see no improvement upon the old-fashioned triangular 
bayonet, which amongst us has been superseded by 



the short Enfield Sword-bayonet. To the latter I 
should prefer even the bowie-knife bayonet, of which 
the Washington Arsenal was once full, and which has 
been used even lately in the United States. None 
but practical soldiers realise the fact that the bayonet 
is meant to be a bayonet, not a Sword, nor a dagger, 
nor a chopper, nor a saw. 



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SECTIONS OF THR US TING'S WORDS. 



135 



and to workmen as the * latchen '-blade. Nos. 2 and 3 show two simple methods 
of lightening it, the former carrying down the axis a fore-and-aft groove instead 
of the raised mid-rib on either face, which was used in the days of the Trojan war. 
No. 4 is the so-called * Biscayan * shape, the trialamellum of more ancient days, 
with three deep grooves and as many blunt edges, by which the parries were 
made. Theoretically it is good : practically and technically speaking, it is inferior 
to either of the preceding. There is so much difficulty in making the blade 
straight and of even temper that many professional men have never seen one 
which was not either crooked or soft. Yet this is the * small-Sword * proper, the 
duelling weapon of the last century, which stood its ground as far as the first 
quarter of the present century. It had a curious modification — the Colichemarde 
blade, so called from its inventor. Count Konigsmark. This was a trialamellum 
very wide and heavy in the * whole-strong * quarter near the hilt, and at about 
eight inches suddenly passing to a light and slender rapier-section. It was 
invented about 1680, and became a favourite duelling-blade, the feather-weight at 




Fig. 124.— Suctions of Thrustinc-Swords. 

the point making it the best of fencing weapons. It remained in fashion during 
the reign of Louis XIV. and then suddenly disappeared.* 

The small-Sword was introduced into England during the eighteenth century, 
and only after 1789 it ceased to be the almost universal French weapon in affairs 
of honour. I believe that the change to the ^ie de combat and the foil arose from 
the popular prejudice that the triangular blade is too dangerous for fair duelling, and 
that a body-wound with it bleeds inwardly and is almost always fatal. This * small- 
Sword,** however, left its descendant in our old bayonet, the grooves being shallower 
and the ribs raised higher. No. 6, supposed to be an experimental Sword from the 
Klingenthal manufactory, dated 18 10-14, is a curious attempt to add cutting power 



* Mr. Wareing Faulder (Exhibition of Industrial 
Art, Manchester, June and July, 1881, Catalogue^ 
p. 24) suggests that the Colichemarde * fell into dis- 
use probably in consequence of its costliness, com- 
bined with its inel^^t appearance when sheathed.' 

• Captain George Chapman, in his Foil Fracticey 
6*^., a book which will appear in the * Bibliography' 
(Part III.)» rightly distinguishes between the iriangu- 
lar small Sword, used only for thrusting, and the bi- 
convex cut-and-thrust * rapier,* a term applied by the 
Germans to the Schliiger^ which has no point. In 
England most i>cople use * small-Sword * only in oppo- 



sition to * broadsword * ; but, as the Art of Fencing 
may be considered a general foundation for swords- 
manship, all men-at-arms should understand and pre- 
serve the difference. The writer, however, observes 
(Notes, pp. 4, 5), that, among the various actions 
which may conveniently be executed with the tri- 
angular * Biscayan,' there are many which cannot be 
so easily managed with a flat blade, or with the usual 
weapon of modem combat, however light and handy. 
Hence * fencers among military men should be 
cautioned against indiscriminately attempting with 
the Sword performances usually taught in lessons with 
the foil.' 



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136 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



to a quadrangfular thrusting blade ; but, as the angles are very acute, the blow will 
have hardly any effect No. 7 is an improvement upon the latter, because it has 
more trenchant capacity. The defect of both these Swords is that they have a 




A 





Fig. 195.— Pibrckd 
Bladb. 



Fig. ia6.— Pibrcbd Bladb 
AND Sheath. 



Fig. 127.— Flambbrgb 



Fig. laS.— GBRMAN 
Main-Gauchb. 



tendency to turn over in the hand, and to ' spring ' at the flat side when the point 

meets with the least resistance. 

There are other ways of lightening the blade besides grooving. A favourite 
fashion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the golden age of the 
Sword, was to break the continuity by open work, which allowed free 
play to the ornamenter's hand. It was also supposed to render the 
wound more dangerous by admitting the air. As will afterwards be 
shown, certain Eastern and mediaeval sabres were hollowed to contain 
sections or pennations, which sprang out in small lateral blades 
when a spring was touched. A German main-gaucJie in the Mus^e 
d'Artillerie, Paris (No. J. 485), shows three blades expanding by a 
spring when a button is pressed in the handle, and forming a guard 
of great length and breadth, in which the opponent's Sword might 
be caught and snapped. Another rare form was the * Paternoster 

blade,' fitted with round depressions, which enabled the pious to count the number 

of his 'vain repetitions,' even in the dark (fig. 129). 




Fig. it9. 
Patbknostbr. 



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OF THE EDGE. 



137 



It has been shown that the material determines the obtuseness or acuteness 
of the angle formed by the two planes which meet at the apex to form the edge. 
There are many varieties of the fiL The edge proper V, formed by the angles of 
resistance (forty degrees) and of entrance (ninety degrees), has already been noticed. 
Besides this there are the chisel-edge, mostly applied to tools such as the plane ; 
and lastly bevel-edge, or double-slope, \^ , which may be called the chopper-edge: 
the obtuser angle is used for blades intended to cut lead-bars and similar resisting 
substances. 

In the Sword the edge is usually straight. The principal exceptions are the 
following. The wavy, cutting surface appears in the * flamberge,' to which flame 





Fic. 130.— Malay 



130.— J 
KRfs. 



Fig. 131.— Wavk-Edcbd 
Dacgbr. 



Fig. X32.— Saw-Tooth 
Blaob. 



Fig. 133.— Main-Gaucub. 



gave a name * : it is nowhere better developed than in the beautiful Malay krfs 
(crease). The object seems to be that of increasing the cutting surface. The wave- 
edged form is well shown in an iron dagger (end of fourteenth or early fifteenth 
century) of the Nieuwerkerke Collection : similar weapons, taken from the Thames, 
are found in the British Museum, and they abound in Continental collections. 
Often the waves are broken into saw-teeth : this apparently silly contrivance is 
found on a large scale in Indian sabres ; its latter appearance farther west is on the 
precious saw-bayonet, a theoretical multum in parvo equally useless for flesh and 



* It was also a proper name applied to the 
Paladin Renaud's Sword. The flamberge of the 
seventeenth century became a rapier-blade, and no 
longer ' flamboyant,* and the difference is in the hilt, 



and especially the guards. The latter were shallower 
and simpler than the rapier form, and were more 
easily changed from hand to hand, as was the practice 
of early fencers. 



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138 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



fuel. Of somewhat similar kind is the toothed edge, which is found in Arab, 
Indian, and other Eastern weapons. The deepest indentations are in the so-called 
Sword-breakers {brise-^p^es)^ mostly of the fifteenth century. It is not easy to explain, 




Fic. 134.— Sword-Brsakbrs. 



except by individual freak, the meaning of the toothed or broken edge which ap- 
pears in a dagger of the fourteenth century (fig. 137). Lastly, there is the hooked- 
edge, spur-edge, or prong-edge, whose projections are generally found in the 
flammberg (flamberge) proper, or two-handed Sword of wavy contour. The hooks 






Fig. 135.— One-Edcbd 
Ways Blade. 



Fic Z36.— Counterguaro. 



Fig. 137.— Toothed- 
Edge. 



Fig. 138.— Hooked* Edge. 



are either single or double, and the evident intention was to receive the adversary's 
blade. As a rule the hollow of the half-crescent is towards the point : some project 
horizontally, but very few are reversed or hollow towards the hilt, as that shape 
would lead the adversary's blade to the forearm. 



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OF THE POINT, 



139 



The point again differs as much as the edge. The natural point would be the 
prolongation and gradual convergence of various lines of the solid body, conical, 
pyramidal, or polygonal, concurring in a common apex. In the Japanese blade the 
edge-line is bent upwards to meet the back-line. When more strength is wanted 
the end is bevelled, forming, like the edge, a compound angle between forty and 
ninety degrees : it is thus fitted to meet hard bodies, and the obtuser the angle 
the stronger the point. 

When edge only is regarded, as in the Schlager and the glaive, the Sword of 
justice or the Scharfrichter's (headman's) weapon, the point of the very broad thin 
blade is rounded off. This, as will be seen, is the case with the early Kelto- 
Scandinavian Swords, miscalled Anglo-Saxon. 







Fig. 13a. 
Exbcutionbr's Sword. 



Fig. i4c^ 
Japambsb Type. 



Fig. 141. 
Chinbsb Sabrb-Knifk. 



Fig. 143. 
Old Pbssian Sword. 



Fig. X43. 

SCYUITAR. 



There is more variety in the extremities of cutting-blades. The falchion of 
Ashanti, Dahome, and Benin, the murderous despotisms of western intertropical 
Africa, terminates in a whorl. This is also the shape of the Chinese sabre-knife, 
with which criminals were despatched. The old Persian Sword, often called by 
mistake the Turkish Sword, ends in a point beyond a broadening of the blade. 
The effect is to add force to the cut ; the weapon becomes top-heavy, but that is 
of little consequence when only a single slash, and no guarding, is required of it. 
This peculiarity was curiously developed in the true Turkish scymitar, which we 
see in every picture of the sixteenth century, and which has now become so rare in 
our museums. The end gradually developed to a monstrous size ; the length was 
cut down for the sake of handiness and the guard was almost abolished, because 



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140 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



parrying was the work of the shield. This exceptional form extended far east- 
wards and westwards. Some of the Nepaul Swords have a double wave at the 
end. It was adopted by the Chinese, who, as usual in their arms, reduced it to 
its simplest expression : the pommel is cap-shaped, the handle corded, and the 
guard a small oval of metal insufficient to protect the hand (fig. 145). Another good 
specimen of the ' Turanian blade ' is the formidable Ddo * of the Ndgd tribe, 
south-east of Assam. It is a thick, heavy backsword, eighteen inches long, with 
a bevel where the point should be, worn at the waist in a half-scabbard of wood, 
and used for digging as well as killing. The Turkish form also extended to Europe 
and America, where it became one of the multitudinous varieties of the * mariner's 
cutlass,* from 'curtle-axe* — curtus and axe. The 'Turanian blade* is well 





\ 





Fig. 144. 
Old Turkish. 



Fig. 145. 
Chinese. 



Fig. 146. 
Old Turkish Scyuitar. 



Fig. 147. 
The DXo. 



Fig. 148. Fig. 149. 

Sailor's Cutlass. Hindu kitXr. 



shown in Eastern scutcheons.^ Its shape resembles that of a hunter's horn with a 
Sword-knot hanging in two ribbons, a survival from remote antiquity. The tincts 
are purpure, gules and sable, upon a fasce tennd (' on a fess * or bar) or, vert and 
argent The descriptions are very precise and technical ; for instance, Abu 



* There is another D4o in the Eastern regions, a 
large, square, double-edged blade, with a handle 
attached to the centre. The Dah of Burma is origin- 
ally the same weapon as the Ndgi Ddo. 

« In the Bulletin dePInsiitut EgyptUn (deuxi^me 
s^rie. No. i, ann^ 1880) there is an admirable 
paper on Eastern heraldry, *Le blason chet les 
Princes musulmans,* by E. T. Rogers Bey. He 
proves that a heraldic scutcheon is known to the 
Arabs as rank^ plur. runiiky and that the word b the 



Persian rang^ colour, from which he would derive 
our (man of) 'rank,* a word hitherto unsatisfactorily 
explained. As regards the tints, * azure ' is evidently 
the Persian Idjawardi ; and * gules ' is better derived 
from gul^ a rose, than from Fr. gueuUs (jaw), which 
is L. Lat. gula^ reddened skin. These three words 
su|^;est that for the origin of heraldry in its present 
form we must go back to Persia. Of the Sword m 
European heraldry I shall have more to say in 
Part II. 



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CHELIDONIAN BLADES. 141 

el-Mahdsin thus notices the Rank (armorial badges) of Anuk, son of Abdullah 
el-Ashraty : ' The coat was composed of a circle argent cut by a bar vert, upon 
which was charged a Sword gules. . . . This Rank was very pleasing, and the 
women of the town had it tattoed upon their wrists/ The Rank was given when a 
subject was raised to the dignity of Amir. 

Before ending the subject of the point I must briefly notice the forked or 
swallow-tailed blade, a curious subject deserving an exhaustive monograph. The 
Greeks evidently derived their y/KiZmv or ')(tKiZ6vio^ ^i<t>09,^ and the Latins their 
bidens, from the two-ended chisels so common in Egypt As will be seen, there 
was a true forked Sword in Assyria, and the form is commonly found in Indian 
daggers. 

The Chelidonian sabre has two distinct shapes. In one the plates are welded 
together, and separate at the third or the fourth section near the end. Mr. Latham 
(Wilkinson's) has a good specimen ; the length of the fork, however, is greater than 
the united part. In the Prince of Wales Collection (Kensington) there is a two- 
bladed Sword, the fork only eight inches long, with the additional peculiarity of 
being saw-edged. In the other form, the Chelidonian proper, the fork is vertical, 
one prong being above the other. What use it could have supplied in cutting is hard 
to divine, but the Sword is essentially personal and eccentric I know only one 
historical blade of this form, Ziil-Fikdr (Lord of Cleaving), the weapon given by 
the Archangel Gabriel to Mohammed, and by the latter to his son-in-law AH bin 
Ali Tdlib, who cleft with it the skull of Marhab, the giant Jew warrior of Khaybar 
Fort It appears upon -the arms of the Zeydi princes, lords of Sana'd in El-Yemen, 
Southern Arabia * : nearer home it may be seen upon the Turkish standard, some 
twenty feet long, taken by Don John of Austria from the Turk at Lepanto.* The 
weapon probably owes this honour to having been mentioned 
amongst the Ahddfs, or traditional sayings of the Apostle of 
El-Islam, * la Sayfa ilia Zii'l-Fikdr wa Id Fatd ilia Ali ' (there 
is no Sword to be compared, for doing damage to the foe, 
with Zu'1-Fikdr, and no valiant youth but Ali). 

Amongst the Chelidonian blades proper I do not include 
the double blade. A fair specimen of the latter is the Orissa ^^^ ^ -gold coast 
Sword ^ : two slightly oval forms spring from the same hilt, 
but separate throughout their length. Another shape is found upon the Gold 
Coast : the blades are disposed like the astronomical sig^ of Aries, and its only 

* Strange to say, these Swcrd-names are carefully ■ This trophy hangs against the staircase wall of 

omitted from Liddell and Scoit, 1869. the fine armoury belonging 10 the Musco del Arsenale 

« The information was kindly forwarded to me by (N val Arsenal), Venice. Here, however, it has 

Captain F. M. Hunter, Assistant Political Resident, become a complicated affair with Koranic inscription 

Aden. Along the blade runs the inscription, which (ch. xl. vol. i.); opei: -jawed dragons' heads at the 

will be quoted in Part If., and the characters ap, ear hilt, and below the handle a rosette with various 

modem. My informant thinks that thb Chelidonian complications of * Va * (Allah !). 
does not represent the original ZuU-Fikar, which was * It is figured in the illustrations following the 

two edged. Anti^uitUs 0/ Orissa, by Rajcndra Lala Mitra. 



T 



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142 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

use IS to slice off noses and ears.* The offending member is placed at the 
commissure, and an upward shear effects the mutilation. I reserve for a future 
page the 'split Swords/ two blades in one scabbard, which were used in mediaeval 
Europe, and which have been preserved in China. 

To conclude this long and technical chapter. The Sword should be tightly 
mounted and well shouldered-up before and behind, leaving no interval between 
hilt and blade. The grip must be firm, and the tang secured either by rivets or, 
better still, by a screw at the pommel : if this be neglected, the weapon will not 
deliver a true edge. In trials both back and edge should be repeatedly struck 
with force upon a wooden post Should the handle show no sign of loosening, and 
the blade ring with the right sound, it is a sign that the mounting is satisfactory : 
the reverse is the case if the blow jars or stings the hand : this suggests that the cut 
will not prove efficient 



Note. — The type and model of the straight blade is the form of Rapier which we 
call the Toledo. It is probably derived from the Spatha or long Sword of the Roman 
cavalryman ; but it assumed its present perfect shape during the reign of Charles Quint 
(a.d. 1493-15 1 9). The exemplar of the curved blade is the so-called 'Damascus' sabre, 
dating probably from the early days of El-Islam (seventh century), when Eastern armies 
were chiefly composed of light Bedawi horsemen. Of these in Part IL 

' Capt. Cameron and I exhibited a specimen, made for us by good King Blay of Att^bo, at a special 
meeting of the Anthropological In:>titute of London. 



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143 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SWORD IN ANCIENT EGYPT AND IN MODERN AFRICA. 

The present state of our history shows us nothing anterior to Egypt in the civilisa- 
tion of Language, of Literature, of Science, Art and Arms. We must now modify 
and modernise the antiquated and obsolete saying — ' ex Oriente lux ' — the fancy 
that illumination came from India, when the reverse is true. The light of know- 
ledge dawned and dayed not in the East, but in the South, in the Dark Continent, 
which is also the High Continent.' Nor can we any longer admit that 

Westward the course of empire takes its way. 

As Professor Lepsius teaches us, ' In the oldest times within the memory of man, 
we know of only one advanced culture ; of only one mode of writing, and of only 
one literary development, viz. those of Egypt' Karl Vogt, a man who has the 
courage to say what he thinks, bluntly states : ' Our civilisation came not from 
Asia, but from Africa.' For our origin we must return to 

The world's great mistress in the Egyptian vale. 

The modem Egyptologist is reforming the false and one-sided theories based 
upon the meagre .studies of anthropological literature in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. 
Yet in the Nile Valley we are only upon the threshold of exploration— topograph- 
ical, linguistic, and scientific. Of its proto-Egyptians and its primeval workman- 
ship as yet we know little ; and it is truly preposterous to suppose that man began 
his artistic life by building pyramids, cutting obelisks, and engraving hieroglyphs. 
The ' Cushite School,' based upon the Asiatic Ethiopians of Eusebius the Bishop,' 
and unfortunately represented by Bunsen, Maspero, Wilkinson, Mariette, Brugsch, 
and a host of minor names, has determined that the old Nilotes ' undoubtedly came 
from Asia.' The theory utterly lacks proof ; and the same may be said of the 
popular assertion, based upon Biblical grounds — *The early colonists of Egypt 

* The Austrian geographer, Dr. Josef Chavanne, ^Ethiopians ' of Herodotus lie between the Germanii 
estimates the mean altitude of Africa at 2,170 feet (Persian Kerman) and the Indus (iil 93, &c.). The 
(round numbers), or more than double that of Europe bas-reliefs of Susiana show negroid t3rpes, and Texier 
(971 feet, M. G. Leipoldt). found the Lamlam tribe in the marshes round the 

head of the Persian Gulf to resemble the Bisharin of 

* He makes his Ethiopians emigrate from India Upper Egypt. Was the Buddha one of these Cushite 
to Egypt— but where? when? how? The 'Asiatic Ethiopians? 



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144 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

came thither from Mesopotamia.' We seem to be reading fable when told (by 
William Osbum *), ' The skill of these primitive artists of Egypt was a portion of 
that civilisation which its first settlers brought with them when they located them- 
selves in the Valley of the Nile.' 

My conviction is that the ancient Egyptians were Africans, and pure Africans ; 
that the Nile-dwellers are still negroids whitened by a large infusion of Syrian, 
Arabian, and other Asiatic blood ; and that Ethiopia is its old racial home. 
iEschylus had already robed their black limbs in white raiment when Herodotus 
(ii. 104) made them dark-skinned compared with the Arabs * and North Africans. 
Every traveller finds his description hold good to the present day. Blumenbach 
declared the old Egyptians to be of Berber origin, the race of Psametik, or the Son 
of the Sun. Hartmann opined that they were not Asiatics but Africans, and Dr. 
Morton modified his first opinion, finding the cranium to be negroid. I hope to 
prove their correctness by making a large collection of mummy skulls.* It is 
certain that the modern Egyptian's hair — that great characteristic of race, accord- 
ing to Pruner Bey — is not silky, as Professor Huxley says, but wiry like that of his 
forefathers.^ Moreover, his type, as distinctly shown by the Sphinx, is melanochroic- 
negroid. Lastly, there are other signs, which need not here be noticed, distinguish- 
ing the African— horse as well as human — from the Arabian. 

There is a history of ancient Egypt, into which we have not yet penetrated. 
Herodotus (ii. 142) glances at it when he makes the Ptah-priest at Memphis pre- 
tend to an antiquity of 1 1,340 years,* during which reigned 341 generations of kings 
and pontiffs.® Plato does the same when he speaks of hymns 10,000 years old, and 
Mela^ when he numbers 330 kings before Amasis, who ruled more than 30,000 
years. Mena (Menes), the first man-monarch who founded Memphis (b.c. 4560 ?) 
some centuries before the Hebrew Creation, was preceded for 13,000 years by the 

' Monumental History, <Sr»f. * The hair is of intermediate type between negro 

• The late Mr. Lane, who was greatly attached to and Malay. The Nilotes are ovK6rpixoi and ipii- 

Cairo and its population, insisted upon the Arab iro/xoi, with woolly locks, slightly flat like ribbons, 

origin and kinship of the Egyptian. To those who evenly distributed (not in peppercorns) over the scalp, 

know both races they appear as different as English* It is also a mistake to make the Nubians \t4r(r6rpixoi : 

men and Greeks. Place an Arab, especially a none of the Nile Valley races are lank-haired like 

Bedawi, by the side of a Fellah, and the contrast will Hindus, Chinese, and Australians, 
strike the least experienced eye. * The full number of Herodotus is 52,cxx> years. 

' The first instalment was sent in May 1881 to the Mr. Day (p. 59) is scandalised by these dates, which 

Royal Collie of Surgeons for the benefit of Professor argue for the * high antiquity theory * ; and appears 

Flower and Dr. C. Carter Blake. I am aware of the astonished to find * an3rthing placed centuries previous 

difiiculty in determining mummy-dates, but the fact to the Noahitic Deluge.* Of this more presently, 
of mummification shows a certain antiquity whose • Each generation contained a * Piromis, son of a 

later limit is sharply defined. The mummy of King Piromis.* The word, made equivalent to /Ta/os 

Mer en Ra (Sixth Dynasty), found near the Sakkarah /:* agathos ( ^ galantuomc\ is Pe-Rome, the man, op- 

p)rramids, had been stripped of its bandages ; but the posed to Pe-Neter, the god. 

marks impressed upon the skin showed that the * Mela has been blamed for repeating Herodotus 

system was that of later >ears. He can hardly be without understanding him. When he states that the 

dated later than B.C. yxo ; and, reckoning from that sun twice set at the point where it now rises (* solem 

period to A.D. 700, when mummifying ceased, we bis jam occidisse unde oritur'), he probably means 

have a population of embalmed bodies of some that the greater light left to the west the zodiacal sign 

730,000,000 in round numbers. which presided at its rising. 



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ANTIQUITY OF EGYPT 



145 



* Dynasty of the GckIs ' (god-kings), suggesting a governmental hierarchy of the 
fetisheer caste : and this lasted for ages, till the Soldier upset the Priest and raised 
himself to the rank of Pharaoh ^ and king. Traces of the proto-Egyptian dynasties 
in which the men of the Pen controlled the men of the Sword long survived ; and 
in later times the ecclesiastical order again ruled the military. We know nothing 
of the hierarchical supremacy but its baldest outline. When our modest chrono- 
logists allow 6000 years to its incept, they run into the contrary extreme of those 
who assign to it myriads of centuries. Rodier* is more reason- 
able ; he opines that the cycle of 1,460 years dates in Egypt from 
B.C. 14,611. 

Again, it will probably be found that ancient Egypt was not 
*the narrowest strip of land in the world running between a 
double desert.* The extent of * Kemi ' * has been arbitrarily con- 
fined to the Riverine Valley as far as the First Cataract, or seven 
hundred by seven miles widening out in the Delta-netherland 
to a base of eighty-one miles. We may fairly suspect that 
modem Masr is only a slice from the eastern half of the antique 
Mizraim. The Greeks made the frontier of Asia extend beyond 
the Suez isthmus and the Nile to the lands of Libya.* This 
Greater Egypt is still suggested by the system of Bahr bild md, 
large Fiumare now bone-dry, and by the alignment of the oases 
in the wilderness west of the River Valley with their giant ruins of a proto- 
historic Past. These may date from the days when the basin of the Bahr 
el-Ghazal — a lake like the Tanganyika and the Victoria Nyanza— discharged its 
annual flood to the North in channels parallel with the 'River iEgyptus.'* The 
lacustrine bed would silt up by the natural process of warping, and the surplus 
water, no longer able to discharge northwards, would force itself eastwards to the 
Nile. The easier drainage would presently convert the lake into a river-basin and 
system, and the lands no longer irrigated would become a waste dotted like a 
leopard skin with oases or watered valleys. 




Fig. 151.-1. Bronze 
Daggbr: 9. SvroRo 
(14 inches long^^ 



* The word at first applied probably to the 
commander-m-chief. Wilkinson's day derived it from 
Phra {pa-Ra), the sun ; now it is explained Per-do^ 
the Great House, in the sense of * Sublime Porte.* 

* Antiquiti des Races Humaints. Paris, 1862. 

* The * black land,' opposed to Tesher^ the ' red 
land' (Edom, Idumsea, Erythraea), the wilds of 
North-Westem Arabia. It is also called on the monu- 
ments A^in {Aian in Pliny) and Ta-mera {Afera^ 
Tomera), the 'inundation region.' Another old name, 
Aeria, is from "^J^^, Yior, the Nile. Kemi must not 
be confounded with Kheniy Chemmis, universal nature, 
the generative and reproductive principle— /*a«. 
When Q. Curtius writes that Chemmis ^umbracuh 
maxime similis est habitus,' I would change the first 
word to *umbilico.' The stepped cone in the Ele- 
phanta Caves exactly explains the latter. 



^ Hecataeus and Anaximander divided the globe 
into Europe {Ereb^ Gharb, the West) and Asia 
{AsiyeA, the East). Their successors added Libya 
(Africa), a term derived from the Libu or Ribu tribes; 
and the Father of History a most insufficient fourth— 
the Nilotic Delta. The latter, however, is ethno- 
logically correct: Egypt is neither Africa nor Asia, 
but a land per se. 

• In Homer, Mgyptus always applies to the Nile 
{Oi/, xiv. 268). Manetho makes it the name of a 
king, Sethos > Seti I. M. Maspero proposes as a 
derivation of the word. Ha Kahi Ptah (the land of 
the god Ptah). Hence the Biblical Pathros-Ptah- 
land {EuA, xxbc 14). Pathyris, the western side of 
Thebes, and the western Provinces generally, may 
have named the virtMcot (Herod, iii. 37), the obscene 
dwarfs who made Cambyses laugh. 



L 



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146 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

An abundance of popular literature has familiarised the public with the outer 
aspect of ancient Egypt, but the world is still far from recognising the message she 
sent to mankind. We must go back to * the Wonderland on the banks of the 
mighty Nile * for the origin of all things which most interest us. It is the very 
cradle-land of language. Her tongue contains all the elements of the so-called 
' Aryan/ ' Semitic, and AUophyllian or Turanian families, and dates long before 
the days of the present distribution. Bunsen's * Egypt * first noticed this fact at some 
length, without, however, dwelling upon its importance. * All Semitic pronouns and 
suffixes,' says M. C. Bertin, 'can be traced back to Egyptian, especially the 
Egyptian of the earliest dynasties * ; he might have added much about other 
mechanical forms. Brugsch tells us (i. 3) that the primitive roots and the essential 
elements of the Egyptian grammar point to an intimate connection of the Indo- 
Germanic (!) and Semitic languages.'^ The AUophyllian or Agglutinative 
Turanian,* a tertium quid which is neither 'Aryan * nor ' Semitic,* is also traceable 
in old Coptic. 

What, then, do these facts suggest? Simply that the elements existing in 
Egyptian travelled from the banks of the Nile and evolved, discreted, and differen- 
tiated themselves in many centres. The word-compounding or Iranian scheme 
found homes in Eastern Europe (Greece, Italy, and the Slavonic or quasi-Asiatic 
half) ; in Asia Minor — especially Phrygia — in Mesopotamia, in Persia, and finally 
in India, where the settlement was comparatively modem. This explains how a 
philologist would derive Sanskrit from Lithuania. This saves us from the ' Aryan 
heresy ' ; * this abolishes * Indo-European,' and worse still ' Indo-Germanic ' — that 
model specimen of national modesty. Both are terms which contain a theory and 
an unproved theory. Again, the word-developing or Arabian scheme, absurdly 
termed Semitic (from Shem !), increased, multiplied, and perfected itself in Northern 
Africa and Arabia, while the Turanian, becoming independent and specialised in 
Akkadian, overspread Tartary and China. 

And this one primaeval language of Egypt framed for itself an alphabet whence 

^ Herodotus (vii. 66) specifies the Arians, a racial reflective, and so forth, and by the peculiar form of 

name then synonymous with the Medes. This is not sentences. Examples: the Finn* Ugrian-Magyar and 

the place to enter upon the subject of Aria's enormous the Turk-Mongol -Tartar, both probably deriving 

development. from the ancient Sakas = Scythians. 

* As a specimen of the roots — which are most re- 
markable when they consist of single consonants, * To Aryan I much prefer the older term 'Iranian*; 
whose reduplication made the earliest words— take Iran (Persia), which once extended from the Indus 
•papa' and •mamma.* The former is from the to the Mediterranean, being one of the great centres 
Egyptian pa-pa (root /), to produce, the original idea where the * Aryo *-E^ptian element of language de- 
of the begetter ; and the latter is ma-ma (root w), to veloped itself, and where a typical race is still found, 
carry, be pregnant, bear. Mut becomes mdtd^ AtiJn7P» Nor is there much objection to 'Turanian,* Turan 
maiery mother: Mer {a-mor), love ; m^ran {fftorwr), being the non-Iranian regions to the east, Tartary and 
die, and mor< (mare), the sea. In * Semitic ' we have China. But * Semitic,* which contains a myth and a 
md, Heb. and Arab, ffid, water ; and a long array of theory, should be changed into 'Arabian.* Egypto- 
other words (as ia, yes, yea ; and »fl, nay) too extensive Arabic attained its purest and highest development in 
for notice. the Peninsula ; Hebrew is a northern and somewhat 

• Characterised chiefly by post- instead of pre- barbarous dialect ; Syriac is a north-western offspring; 
positions, by additions to the verb which make it causal, Galla, a western ; and so forth. 



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ORIGINS IN EGYPT. I47 

are derived all others. This is proved by the fact that each and all begin, as Plutarch 
tells us old Coptic did, with the letter A, Of its age in Nile-land we may judge 
from the cartouche containing Khufu's name, left by some workman on an inner 
block of the Great Pyramid.* How many generations of articulate-speaking men 
must have come and gone before so artificial and artistic a system as the Royal 
Signature upon the Shield occurred to the human mind ! 

But Egypt did still more. She was the fountain-head of knowledge which 
overflowed the world. Eastward the great current set through Babylonia and 
Chaldaja, Persia and India, Indo-China, China, and Japan, to Australia and Poly- 
nesia. Westward it flooded Africa and Europe. It may have reached America by 
two ways. The Oriental line would extend from China and Japan to the Eastern 
Pacific coast : the Occidental was practicable vid Atlantis, or possibly in the days 
when Behring's Straits did not exist It found a new Mediterranean in the great 
Caribbean Gulf, and new Indies in Mexico and Peru. Indeed, the march of intellect 
from Egypt is conterminous with the limits of the habitable globe. 

The invention of an alphabet would necessarily lead to literature — poetry, his- 
tory, and criticism. The earliest known manuscript is the Prisse (d'Avennes) 
Papyrus, a roll dating from the days of Pharaoh Tat-ka-ra, last of the Fifth Dynasty 
(circ. B.C. 3000). It is a collection of proverbs, maxims, precepts, and command- 
ments, of which the fifth is, ' Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy life may 
be long ' : the style is admirable for its humorous vein, and for its graphic descrip- 
tion of old age — * Senex bis puer.' The earliest epic is the heroic poem of Pentaur, 
laureate to Ramses II. (b.C i 333-1 300) ; it is the prototype of the cyclic songs 
which, in Cyprus especially, preceded the chef-d'oeuvre of the Homerid chief; 
and it opens with an * Arma Virumque cano.' The * Deadbook * is the birth of the 
Drama, and it may date ages before the dialogues of Job. The 'Canticles of 
Solomon ' are in the evocations of Isis and Nephthys.' The critique of a young 
author's production by a purist in style might add a sting to reviewing in the 
present day.* To the Egyptians we must attribute the invention of maps and 
plans. They first studied heraldry : every nome had its distinctive emblem 
generally bird or beast ; and each temple and guild its blazon.* 

Literature would be imperfect without art and science, and accordingly we find 
their head-quarters and old home in Egypt. These studies humanised the people ; 
their code suggests the mildness of modern penal law ; and their reverence for letters, 

* For whose erection every * authority * gives his ■ Brugsch, vol. ii. chap. xiv. 

or her own date. Mr. Proctor's calculation, based 

upon the precession of the equinoxes, is B.C. 3350. * One nome {Tanis) carried a crescent and one 

It appears to me that we also obtain the date from the star, others had two and three of the latter. The 
position of the polar star (a Draconis), which looked emblem passed over to the Byzantine Empire, and 
down the axis of the great entrance-passage before now we see upon the Egyptian flag the crescent and 
this long tube was blocked up. We may thus assume Scb, the five-rayed star. It is thus dbtmguished 
between B.C. 3440 and B.C. 3350W from the Turkish, which has seven rays. 

« Records of the Past, ii. 1 20; and Tram. Bibl. 
Soc. i. ii. 383-Ss. 

L 2 



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148 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

for old age, and for the dignity of man, makes them an eternal example to the 
world. The monuments show their fondness for music and painting. Their know- 
ledge of statuary is proved by a host of works, especially the wooden. Shaykh el- 
Balad (village chief) in the Bulak Museum — a marvel of skill, probably dating from 
the Fourth Dynasty, B.C 3700. In architecture they invented the arch, round and 
pointed ; eight several orders of columns, including the proto-Doric ; Atlantes, 
Caryatides, and human-shaped consoles. The 'temple of Jfzeh * near the sphinx 
IS evidently older than the adjoining pyramids ; it is a model of solidity in which 
the hardest stone is worked like wood. 

In science they especially cultivated geometry, astronomy, astrology, and 
* alchemy,' whose name betrays its origin. Their arithmetic taught decimals and 
duodecimals. Their mathematics arose from measuring fields and calculating the 
cubes of altars. They knew the precession of the equinoxes : Rodier (p. 31) con- 
siders that they learnt it from observing the equinoctial point and the rising of 
Sothis, the Tuth-star, ' the axle of the skies,' in the same zodiacal sign, and that 
the studies at Syene date from B.C. 17,932. They knew the motion of the apsides, 
and the solar and stellar periods ; they invented latitude and longitude ; they denoted 
by a cross the intersection of the solstices and the equinoxes, and they published 
annual calendars. In optics they invented the lens. They were not ignorant of 
the motive power of steam, and possibly the electric fish had taught them the rudi- 
ments of electricity. 

They were great in the mechanical arts. In medicine they dissected and vivi- 
sected : in agriculture they invented the plough, the harrow, the toothed sickle, the 
flail, and the tribulum ; in carpentry the dove-tail ; in ceramics the potter's wheel, 
and in hydraulics the water-wheel. In gardening they transplanted full-grown 
trees. They made glass, porcelain, and counterfeit pearls and precious stones ; 
and they used emery powder and the lapidary's wheel. They spun silk, and knew 
the use of mordants for stuffs and dyes for hair. They made * babies ' (dolls) and 
children's toys of clay, and they moulded masks of papier-m4chd In some points 
they were strangely modem. For hunting they wore dresses of * suppressed colour,' 
not pink nor * rifleman's green * : we are just beginning to find out our mistakes. 
They affected falconry, and played at the draughts which led to chess ; and at 
morra^ the Roman micare digitis. They sat on chairs whose shapes are like ours, 
not on divans nor on triclinia. In their house furniture they studiously avoided 
over-regularity ; and Japan is now teaching England and Germany not to weary 
man's eye by monotony. 

And as they were advanced in literature and politics, the religion of earth, so 
they assiduously cultivated religion, the politics of heaven. The Biblical student 
has found among the tombs of Nile-land the absolute truth of what Celsus said — 
namely, that the Hebrews borrowed their tenets and practices from Egypt Their 
date of the creation ex nihilo (b.C. 4004-4620) Was evidently Manetho's period of 
the succession of Mena, and it is used even in our day. Their genesitic cosmogony. 



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EGYPT THE CRADLE-LAND. 149 

as Philo Judaeus shows, and as Origen expressly declares, was an adaptation of 
Nilotic allegories and mysteries which the vulgar understood factually and literally. 
Their ' Adam ' suggests ' Atum,' whence * Adima,* the First Man amongst the 
Hindus. Their App or Apap (Apophis), whose determinative is a snake transfixed 
with four knife-blades,' is the great old serpent, the ophid-giant, Sin, Sathanas. 
The ' Flood ' * is the annual Nilotic inundation modified by the Izdubar legends of 
the Interamnian Plain. Noah, Nuh, Noe, is suspiciously like Nu or Nuhu,* the 
Sailor of the Waters, the Lord of the Full Nile. Ham suggests Kam, the black race. 
The ark is the Bahr or Ua (Baris, Argo navis) of Nu, the sacred vessel portrayed in 
the ruins of Egyptian Elephanta, the boat of Osiris, or Uasur, the man-formed Sun- 
god ; and the floating cradle of Moses is a mere replica of Osiris' ark. In that 
complicated idolatry of deceased ancestors, based upon a system of monotheism,* 
or rather the worship of glorified man, which formed the religion of Egypt, the 
Sun typified human life. He rose as the infant Horus ; he was the Lord Ka of 
the mid-day ; as Tum he became old and set ; and as Hormakhu (Harmachis) he 
shone to the under world below the horizon. Night and Death being the forerunners 
of Light and Life.* 

The preternatural apparatus of both faiths (original and borrowed) is the same. 
• The four genii of Death — Amset (under Isis), Hapi (Nephthys), Tuamutef (Neith), 
and Khebsenauf (Sebk)— became the four archangels. Of Urim and Thummim, 
the latter is the plural of Thmei (Themis), the blind or headless goddess of Truth 
and Justice.* Even such phrases as ' I am that I am ' ^ are loans from the hiero- 
grammat ; Ankh (I am Life) was rendered Yahveh (Jehovah). This * ineffable name'* 
is borrowed by some, Colenso included, from Semitic heathenism ; but Brugsch 
shows that Egypt supplied the Mosaic conception of the Creator. There appears, 
indeed, direct derivation in the unity of the Deity and in the duality of Typhon, 
Set, Satan, the Evil Spirit Later ages copied the local Triads of Kemi, in which 
the third proceeded from the other two. Both ecclesiastical establishments con- 

• See chap. viii. Another describes him as • Maker of all things; whose 
« The popular conception of the Noachian Deluge beginning was the beginning of the world; whose 

is a study. There have been milUons of local and ^°"°* "« various and manifold; the first to exist ; 

partial floods ; but wherever and whenever a traveUer ^« °°*^ ^^y ^"^ ^'^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ °^ ^ ^^° ^*^^* 
finds the legend of an mundation he incontinently » Mr. Froude nutaphysicises when he tells us that 

applies it to * the Flood.' Dr. Livingstone could not the religion of Egypt is the adoration of physical 

refrain from so doing at the petty Lake Dilolo. And forces. Mankind do not worship abstractions ; they 

it is to be noted that the Egyptians, accustomed to begin (and mostly end) by adoring man. 
annual freshets, utterly ignored one general cataclysm 
as held by the Greeks. * Blind because she saw with insight, not physica. 

• <XT V t • r J • -lv XT 1- . . ,_ -r* . vision. Her eyes are hidden by blinkers or 'goggles.' 

• *Nuhu' IS found m the Nahrai tomb, Beni ,, , • ^, a J -a u • *v « 

Hasan (Osbum, L 239) ; other names are Noum, "" "^* "^"^ ^ ^' "^^ ^"' "^"^P^ " ^" ^"• 

Nouf,andNef. "'^"'^^ 

« Amun Ra (Hephastus, Vulcan), the veiled Osiris, * Even ' God save the King ' must be referred back 

the * Hidden One of Thebes,' is thus addressed in a ^ ^«™- 

papyrus :— • It is an aorist from * Havah ; ' so ^hvis from ^^w. 

He is One only, alone sans equal, and natura from nascor. Mystically, Ya is the past. 

Dwelling above in the Holy of Hohes. Ha the present, and V<ih the future. 



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ISO THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

tained Prophets {Sem\^ High Priests,' Priests, ' Holy Fathers,* and Scribes. The 
Decalogue is a rhunti of the forty-two commandments in the Deadbook (chapter 
125). The portable shrines of the great Egyptian gods originated the Tabernacle, 
which grew to be the Temple ; it corresponds with the S^^i/iy u/mi or movable 
tent of the Carthaginians. The African practice of circumcision was probably in- 
tended originally as a prophylactic against syphilis, of which traces have been 
found in prehistoric bones. The peculiar Jewish hatred for pork is reasonless 
unless we explain it by a superstitious horror of the Typhonian beast. Rationalists 
tell us that the meat was religiously forbidden because unwholesome in the 
tropics, a causa non causa : it is the favourite food in the Brazil, in China, and in 
Christian India ; even the Mardthds will eat wild hog ; nor are the habits of the 
animal more filthy than the duck's. The truth is that these dietary prohibitions 
served to make a differentia^ to disunite man, to pit race against race and to 
feed the priest 

But while the Hebrews drew largely upon the wisdom (and the unwisdom) of 
Egypt, they ruthlessly cast out the eminently Nilotic ideas of a Soul, of a Judg- 
ment of the Dead, and of a future state of rewards and punishments — three tenets 
which, in modem days, form the very foundation of all faiths. * If a man die, shall 
he live (again) ? * asks Job (xiv. 14), in a chapter showing that life once lost is lost 
for ever.* And apparently from the days of Moses this was the peculiarity of 
* Semitic ' thought ; it lived in the Present and had no Future, or rather it spumed 
the world to come. * Moses,' says Professor Owen, 'could not admit the after-life, 
or teach of reward and retribution in a future state, without risk of tainting his 
monotheism with some trace of the manifold symbolism environing the " divine 
son of Amen " (Osiris), who after suffering loss of the mortal life, which he had 
assumed for bettering his kind, became, on resigning his divinity, their judge.* The 
Hebrews adopted Soul and Judgment, Heaven and Hell, many centuries after 
Moses from their Assyrian kinsmen,* who also supplied them with their present 
names for the twelve months and sundry astronomical notions. And their modem 
descendants by universally accepting a Resurrection have done that against which 
Moses so carefully guarded. 

> My fellow-traveller, the Rev. W.Robertson Smith, ^Abraham, the legendary forefather of the 

has neglected the derivation of the * Prophet * grade Hebrews, was a Chaldaan from Ur of the Chaldees. 

by Jewry from Egypt ; his interesting volume ( The On the east bank of the Euphrates lies Uru-ki, Erech, 

Old Testament^ dr'c, ) wants more Egyptianism. The or Warki, fronted by Ur, Uru, or Mughayr : the 

Prophets of Nile-land had their merits ; they foretold Bedawin still call the latter * Urhha* in memory of 

that Pharaoh Necho*s Suez Canal would be more *Ur.' Thus Abraham was a hill-man from the harsh 

useful to strangers than to natives. and rugged regions fringing Southern Armenia. 

* The High Priest's robe in Jewry had 366 bells, Hence the 'Jewish face,* with its strongly markei 

symbolising the days of the Sothic-sidereal year. In features and its wealth of hair and beard, appears 

the times of the early Pharaohs, the * Queen of the everywhere in the sculptures of ancient Babylonia and 

New Year * appeared in coincidence with the begin- Persia. Hence, too, the superficial observation that 

ning of the solar year. The Sothic zera had been the Afghans and hill-tribes west of the Indus are Jews 

fixed from observations before Thut-mes III. (Eight- because they have the typical Jewish look. The 

tenth Dynasty, circ. b.c. 1580). reason is that all are derived from the same ethnic 

» Yet the end of chap. xix. is distinctly teleologi- centre, a great watershed of race, 
cal. Were there two Jobs ? 



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EGYPTIAN METALLURGY. 



iSi 



I need hardly say that the mythologies of Greece, Etruria, and Rome only cor- 
rupted Egyptian mysteries and metaphysics. Three instances will suffice : Charon 
is a degraded Horns ; Minos is Mena, and Rhadamanthus contains the word 
Amenti, the right side (of Osiris), the west. Nor can we be surprised if Egypt is 
now giving rise to scientific superstitions. Every reader of * Pyramid Literature ' 
will note the mysterious influence which Kemi is exercising upon the modem 
mind.* 

In the preceding chapters I have noted the development of metallurgy by the 
ancient Egyptians. They probably began with gold,^ the easiest of all ores to find 
and to work ; it was abundant in Upper Egypt, and about B.C 1600 they found a 
California in ' Kush ' (^Ethiopia). They called it Tum, Khetem, and Nb, which 
is variously pronounced Nebu, Neb, and Nub, whence Nubia. It has two hiero- 
glyphic determinatives /n^ir ^'^f^^ the necklace and the washing-bowl covered 
with the straining-cloth. The Kemites called silver ' white gold,' * showing the 
movement of invention ; and they could draw silver wire three thousand years ago. 
Wilkinson (II. chap, viii.) remarks, * The position of the silver-mines is unknown ' ; but 
he wrote before the discovery of Midian, where surface-stones have been picked up 
containing three ounces per ton. As their pictures prove, they worked iron, although 
little has outlasted the corrosion of Time. They applied the blow-pipe to the 
works of the whitesmith. They were well acquainted with soldering by lead or 
alloys,^ as is shown by the Shesh or Sistrum of Mr. Burton. I may here remark 
parenthetically that this crepitaculum used in temple-service gave rise to the Maracd 
or Tammaraka, the sacred rattle, a gourd full of pebbles worshipped by the Brazi- 
lian Tupis, who thus acknowledged the mysterious influence of rhythmic sounds.* 
They were skilful in the damascening * or inlaying of weapons, an invention claimed 



* In this section of the nineteenth century three 
popular crazes are producing a literature of vigorous 
growth. The first is the Shakespearian ; not Shake- 
speare, but Bacon, or some other Palmerstonian pet, 
wrote Shakespeare. The second, apparently a by- 
blow of the Book of Mormon, is the descent of John 
Bull from the • Lost Tribes, * who were never lost. The 
third is the Pyramid craze ; and the rough common 
sense uf the public has embodied it in ' the Inspired 
British Inch ' : these Pyramidists mostly forget that the 
Pyramid is one of three greater and some seventy 
lesser items which form the cemetery of Memphis. 

' Vet it is remarkable, observes Brugsch (i. 212), 
that from the earliest ages the curse of the Typhonic 
gods clings to gold. So Plutarch {Isis and Osiris) 
tells us that the worshippers were directed not to 
wear the noble metal ; and thb still is a general rule 
in El-Islam. 

• Silver, the *next folly of mankind,* says Pliny 
(AW. Hist, xxxiii. 31), showing his own, and rivalling 
Horace*s 'aurum irrepertum et sic melius situm.' 
Strange to say, neither old Egypt nor Assyria had a 
coinage, which Herodotus (i. 94) and a host of other 



writers attribute to the Lydians, the forefathers of the 
Etruscans. Its representative in the Nile Valley was 
the ring-money, which extended to ancient Britain^ 
and which is still preserved in many parts of Africa. 
The golden *manillas* discovered at Dali (Idalium) 
in Cyprus, where the breaks of the circle are adorned 
with the heads of animals, lions and asps, show what 
the now meaningless thickening of these parts origin- 
ally meant. 

* * Lead is also united by the aid of white lead 
(tin) ; white lead with white lead by the agency of 
oil ' (Pliny, xxxiii. 30). 

» The Captivity of Hans Stadc^ p. 145. 

• Properly speaking, to * damascene * is confined to 
*grit * or inlaid iron or steel, the word evidently deriving 
from Damascus, once so Dimous for Swords. Johnson 
{Dict,^ Longmans, 1805) explains the word 'damask,* 
* linen or silk woven in a manner invented at Damas- 
cus, by which part, by a various direction of the 
threads, exhibits flowers or other forms.* Percy 
{Metal, p. 185) inclines towards • Damascus * ; but he 
suggests that the 'word *• damask " applied to steel 
may have been derived, not from the place of mann- 



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152 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

by those model ' claimants/ the Greeks. Their simple process was to cut out the 
ground, to hammer in gold and silver, and, finally, to file and polish the surface.* 

The metallurgic proficiency of Old Egypt would lead to the development of 
arms and armour, and enable the soldier to win easier victories over the ' vile, im- 
pure, and miserable Gentiles ' — i.e. all men except themselves. The god Anhar, or 
Shu, is * Lord of the Scymitar.' Horus, as a hawk-headed mummied deity, is 
seated holding two Swords. Amen-Ra, Lord of Hab, is a 'great god Ramenma, 
" Lord of the Sword." ' The ' wearer of the Pshent or double crown ' (the Pharaoh), 
the image of Monthu, god of war, was ex-officio * His Holiness ' (high-priest) and 
Commander-in-Chief, who personally led his warriors to * wash their hearts ' (cool 
their valours) as the Zulus wash their spears. Like Horus, he is ' valiant with the 
Sword.' * When going to war he was presented vvith the * Falchion of Victory,' and 
thus addressed : * Take this weapon, and smite with it the heads of the unclean.' 
In paintings and sculptures he is a large and heroic figure : he draws the bow, he 
spears or cuts down the foe, and he drives his war-car over the bodies of the slain. 
His soldiers are divided into Calasiri (Krashr* or bowmen) and Hermotybians, the 
latter unsatisfactorily derived * from iJ/itTu^Stoi/, a strong linen (waist- ?) cloth. The 
two divisions represent the second of the five castes, ranking below the priestly and 
above the agricultural : they held one of the three portions into which the land was 
divided. Recruits were taught in the military schools that originated the Pent- 
athlon and the Pancratium, the Palaestra and the Gymnasium. They were carefully 
trained to gymnastics, as the monumental pictures in the Beni Hasan tombs show ; 
they used Mogdars or Indian clubs, and they excelled in wrestling, though not in 
boxing. The royal statues are those of athletes, with their broad shoulders, thin 
flanks and well-developed muscles. The soldier practised single-stick, the right hand 
being apparently protected by a basket-guard, and the left fore-arm shielded by a 
splint or splints of wood, strapped on, and serving for a shield (fig. 152). 

The standing army consisted of foot and horse,* the latter being mostly in chariots ; 
and they were divided into corps, regiments, battalions, and companies. The men 
were officered by Chiliarchs (colonels), Hekatontarchs (captains), and Dekarchs 
(sergeants), as the Greeks called them. The ' heavies ' were armed with a long strong 

facture but from a fancied resemblance between the is a squatting archer with bow and arrows. Marvel- 
markings in question and the damask patterns on lous to say, Brugsch (i. 51) mentions 'clubs, axes, 
textile fabrics.' bows and arrows,* utterly neglecting the Sword. 

* This process resembles our niello (nigellum) ^ Egyptian national names give derivation to, but 
inlaying. The oldest composition contained most do not derive fix>m, Greek. According to Pollux 
silver and no lead. Percy {Metallurgy^ p. 23) gives (vii. 71), however, Hemitybum is Egyptian, evidently 
us its history : the first treatise by Theophilus, alias corrupted. 

Rugerus, a monk of the early eleventh century, was • The horse, apparently unknown to the First 

translated by Robert Hendrick (London, 1847). Dynasty of Memphis, wasfiuniliar to the Second. Mr. 

* Plutarch relates {De Isid, 2) of Ochus (Thirty- Gladstone (Primer of Horner^ p. 97 : Macmillan, 
first Dynasty), who, amongst other acts of tyranny, 1878) supposes that the animal came from Libya or 
caused the sacred bull Apis to be made roast beef. Upper Egypt; but the African horse probably origi- 
that he was represented in the Catalogue of Kings by nates from Asia. The first illustrations of horses and 
a Sword. chariots are found at Eileithyias, temp, Aah-mes, 

■ I^rsha^ Krasher^Qx Krershra^ The determinative Amos, Amosis, B.C. 1500. 



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EGYPTIAN WEAPONS. 



153 





FlO. 15a.— SlNGLB-STIOC IN EgTPT. 



Fig. X53.— Egyptian Soldibr and Shield. 




IG. 154. — Egyptian Soluikbs. 





Fig. 155. -Egyptian Soldikb. 



Fig. 156.-1. Egyptians Fighting, fkom 
Paintings of Thbbes ; a. Egyptian 

SOLOIBKS, FROM ThBBAN BaS-RsUBFS. 



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154 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



spear and an immense shield provided with a sight-hole. Some carried the ' LisAn '- 
club, the battle-axe, and the mace ; and almost all had for side arms pole-axes/ 
Swords, falchions, and daggers. The * light bobs ' were chiefly archers and slingers, 
also weaponed with ' Lisdns,' axes, warflails, and Swords. The chariot-corps or 
cavalry, besides bows and arrows, had clubs and short Swords for close quarters. 
The battle-axes show clear derivation from the stone celt, which supplied the hiero- 
glyphs with the word Natr or Netr (Neter, &c.), meaning god, gods, or goddess 
Cv\? In the Demotic alphabet the axe was K (JCelebia). 




Fig. 157. -Bronze Hatchets 
IN Wooden Handli-s, 
Bound with Thongs. 
(Heads, 3 and 4I inches, 
Hefts, isf amd z6| inches.) 




Fig. 158. -Pole-axes. 



Fig. 159.— Kheien or War-axes, 



The action began, at the sound of the trumpet, with an advance of light-infantry, 
bowmen, slingers, and javelineers. Then came the charge by the ponderous pha- 
lanx of ten thousand men, one hundred in front by one hundred deep, and flanked 
by chariots and cavalry. Thus the close combat was not the disorderly system of 
duels that prevailed in the barbarous Middle Ages of Europe. In storming fortified 
places they used the pavoise and testudo, the ram, the scaling-ladder, the bulwark 
or movable tower, and the portable bridge. They were also skilful military 
miners. 



* The pole-axe was three feel long, the handle 
being two ; the blade varied from ten to fourteen 
inches, and below it was a heavy meta ball, some 
four inches in diameter, requiring a powerful arm. 
The club in the British Museum, armed with wooden 
teeth, is not represented on the monuments, and 
probaMy belonged to some barbarous tribe. 



• I have already discussed the Stone Age in Egypt 
and in Africa (chap. iii.). We must not, however, 
determine it to be pre-metallic without further study. 
Herodolus first notices it when he tells us that the 
Ethiopians in the army of Xerxes used stone-tipp;:d 
arrows. 



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THE EGYPTIAN SWORD. 



I5S 



The Egyptian phalanx was armed with the large shield, lance, and Sword ; the 
latter was generally called Seft, f V or |] ^^y, or ^^\\ also inverted to 

Setf, ^Ly : it becomes Sifet in ^Ethiopia, and in Berber Siwuit The weapon 
in the hieroglyphs is of four different shapes. The first is the boomerang- 
Sword 7, m or ma, meaning * to destroy ' : this M is the root of the Hebrew and 
Arabic Maut and the Prakrit-Sanskrit, Mar. The second is the Knife-Sword p At or 
Kat, the determinative of cutting. These two are joined ^ in the root ma (cut, 
mow). The third is the Khopsh, Khepsh, or Khepshi, v,^^, the sickle-Sword, still used 
in Abyssinia and throughout Africa : with a flattened curve it became the Hindu 
Kubja, the Greek ' Kopis,' and the Gurkha * Kukkrl* The second two are combined 

in the root Smam, |' / ^'•'^, *to smite.' Other names of the Sword are Ta or 

Nai, A' ,?,, and Nai, Na'ui, or Nakhtui, ^ V(^(]- 

The falchion (ensis falcatus), called Shopsh, Khepsh, or Khopsh,' is represented 
as early as the Sixth Dynasty (after B.C. 3000). Hence, says Meyrick, the Koifis of 
Argos — Argolis being a very mixed province, where the base was Pelasgian and 



' I cannot but suspect the word of being a con- 
gener of our *chop.* Mr. Gerald Massey, author of 
A Book of the Beginnings^ favoured me with his 
opinion upon the * scymitar Khopsh.' He identifies 
it with the hinder thigh ( ^^ _^_, Shepsh, or V^*, 
KhepsK)y of ihe 'old Genitrix * of the Typhonian type, 
Kfa or Kef a (force, power, might); the Goddess of the 
Great Bear and the place of birth. Hence the <z> 
{Ru) or 'mouth* of the Sword came to be synonymous 
with the *edge* of the Sword (Genesis xxxiv. 36). 
In the Denderah z'»diac, the central figure, the 'old 
Genitrix,* holds the Khopsh- chopper or falchion with 
the right hand. The ' thigh of Khepsh * is also the 
Egyptian rudder-oar. The Great Bear Khepsh is one 
of the earliest measures of the Seasons : the Chinese 
still say that at nightfall the ' handle of the northern 
bushel* (tail of Ursa Major) points east in spring, 
south in summer, west in autimin, and north in 
winter. 

Mr. Gerald Masscy*s two fine volumes have se- 
cured him, and will secure him, much bitter and 
hostile criticism from the many-headed who are Ijrnx- 
eyed as to details while they overlook the general 
scheme. His object has been to show that religion 
and literature, science and art, originated in Egypt ; 
and here he is undoubtedly right. Relymg upon the 
self-evident fact that the language of the hieroglyphs 
contains ' Semitic' as well as * Aryan* roots and de- 
rivative forms, he traces these throughout the lan- 
guages of the world. Whether we judge his work 
conclusive or not, we cannot but admire and applaud 



the vast reading and research which he has brought 
to bear upon the most interesting subject. 

And in another way Mr. Massey has done good. 
He has uttered a lively and emphatic protest against 
the Sanskritists and their ovtr-weening pretensions. 
In vol. ii. (p. 56) he shows how shallow is the con- 
clusion that Ophir was in India because the produce 
brought back by Solomon*s fleets had, according to 
Professor Max Miiller, Sanskrit or Dravidian names. 
^ Koph"* the ape is Kapi in Sansk.; but it is pure 
Egyptian, Kapi^ whence the Gr. ir^r-ot or icn^-of. 
' Tukkiyim * (peacocks) resembles the Toki of Tamil 
and the Togei of Malabar ; but the root is evidently 
the Egyptian Tekh or Tekai^ a symbolical bird. ' Shen 
hcLbim * (teeth of elephant = tusks) may derive from 
the Sansk. Ibau^ an elephant, but the latter is origin- 
ally Ab in Egyptian. These erroneous views, coming 
from an authoritative source, are at once accepted, 
copied into popular books, and find their way round 
the world, to the confiision of true knowledge. They 
make it our hapless fate to learn, unlearn, and releam. 
See ' ape * in Smith*s Diet, of the Bible, and, to quote 
one in dozens, the Trans. Anthrop. Soc, p. 435, May 
1882, — 'the name for ape in "Kings** aad in Greek 
authors, both adopted from Sanskrit. ' 

Mr. Massey unfortunately has not studied Arabic, 
hence many views which will hardly find acceptance. 
In interpreting the hieroglyphics he has wisely pre- 
ferred the ideographic symbolism and the determina- 
tives which, countless ages ago, preceded the phonetic 
and alphabetic forms. 



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IS6 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



the superstructure was Egyptian ; the latter introduced by Danaus, and followed by 
the Phoenicians, who founded the town Phoenicia. Quintus Curtius (lib. iii.) says : 
' Copides vocant gladios leviter curvatos, falcibus similes, quibus appetebant bellua- 
rum manus.' Apuleius (* Met* lib. xi.) also speaks of * copides et venabula.' * 

Evidently the Egyptian Sf, Sefi, Seft, or * Sword ' generically,^ gave rise to the 
Mesopotamian Sibir, Sibirru, and Sapara ; to the Greek ^/<^-of ; to the Aramaean 
Saiph, Sipho, and to the Arabic ^^^ (Sayf-un), the second syllables being merely 
terminative ; while the Latin spatha and the German Schwerte, and our Swerde 
and Sword, are the latest echoes of Sef and Seft. The Germans say rightly, * Nichts 
wandert so leicht als Waffen und Waffennamen.' 




FiCS. 160.— DiFFBRBNT FoRMS OF THB EGYPTIAN KhOPSH (KoPIsX WITH EdGBS InSIDB AND OUTSIDS. 



Another Egyptian name for the sickle-shaped blade is Khrobi,' which suggests 
the Hebrew Hereb (a weapon, a Sword). We are also sure that the words are 
primitive Egyptian : the proof is that the symbol of ' Md ' (* destroy ' &c.), the 
Khopsh or ensis falcatus^ is the numeral nine ; and the straight flesh-blade (JCt) is 
the pronoun thou, thee : the two together alluded to the oldest religious practice.* 

The falchion, shaped in the pattern of Ursae major (?), was thick-backed and 
weighted with bronze ; the blade, in later days at least,* was of iron or steel, as 
shown by the blue colour. Champollion ^ notices blue Swords with golden hilts in 



' For further notice of the Kopis, see chap. xi. 

• Also r. to decapitate : the Coptic form is SeH or 
Sefi. 

» Bunsen, v. 758. 

* 6unsen*s Egypt, r. 429. According to Castor, 
the two Swords pointed at the throat of a kneeling 



man was the priest*s stamp denoting pure beasts, fit 
for sacrifice. He has noted that this survival points 
distinctly to human sacrifice in older days. 

* Yet the tombs at Beni Hasan date 900 years 
before the popular era of the Trojan war. 

* AfoHum, 262 fol., plates ii, 15. 



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THE EGYPTIAN SWORD. 



157 



the tomb of Ramses III., and a * weapon Kops' with the gold, of which the hilt 
consists, running up the concave back of the blade. * The gold was therefore either 



19 3 

1 9 i 



U. 



^ 



Fig. i6i.— I. Egyptian Sling ; a. Unknown Wbafon ; 
3. Shrathbd Dagger; 4. Hatchbt; 5. Scorpion, or 
whip-Goad. 




Fig. t6a.— Egyftian Daggsxs. 



sunk into the iron, or gilded on the back. In other cases the Kops of kings was 
entirely of gold, or, like other Swords, entirely of brass (copper ?). In another 







Fig. 163.— Egyptian Dagger of 
Bronzb in British Musbum. 



Fig. 164.— Oppicbr or Lipr-Guard to 
Ramses II., apparbntly Asiatic 



Fig. X65.— Bronzr Sword, pound 
AT Al-Kantarah, Egypt. 



similar weapon, brass (copper T) and iron were blended in the blade.' An iron 
* Kops ' was found in a tomb at Gumah. 



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158 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



The Khopsh, a sickle in type, and originally a throwing weapon as well as a 
cutting arm, was always carried by the Pharaoh, who used it indifferently with the 
pike {Tarti\ the mace, axe {Aka, Akhu\ battle-axe, or pole-axe [Kheten\ Officers 
and privates, * lights ' as well as * heavies,' also wielded it in pictures. Those com- 
manding infantry-corps are armed with the simple stick like the Roman centurion 
and our drill-sergeant of bygone days. 





Fig. i66.- 



I. AxB : a. Spkar-Head ; 3. Khopsh ; 
4. Lancb-Hkad. 





Fig. 167.— Belt and Dagger. 



Fig. 168.— Egyptian Daggers. 



The fourth or long-straight Sword, which does not appear in the hieroglyphs, had 
a two-edged cut and-thrust leaf-shaped blade from two and a half to three feet long,* 
with a foining point like that of the SomaL' These large weapons seem to have 



> Rosellini shows a long tapering blade with a 
mid-rib, apparently sunken, and a raised surface on 
each side. The length is divided into five parts, 
smooth and hatched (?). 

' The Soma! have retained three other notable 
peculiarities of ancient Egypt ; the wig (worn by the 



old Nilotes) ; the Uts f j j or wooden head-stool 

acting pillow, which further north was a half-cylinder 
of alabaster finely carved ; and the ostrich-feather 
head gear. The laftter was a symbol of Truth among 
the old Eg}'ptians, because, says Hor Apollo, the wing- 



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THE EGYPTIAN SWORD. 



1 59 



been used by foreign mercenaries. The leaf- also becomes a trowel-form, betraying 
its origin and derivation, the spear-head. The grip was hollowed away in the centre, 
gradually thickening at either end, and was sometimes inlaid with metal, stones, 
and precious woods. The pommel of that worn in the Pharaoh's girdle is sur- 
mounted by one or more hawk-heads, this bird being the symbol of Ra * (the Sun). 
The handle is also adorned with small pins and studs of gold, shown through suit- 
able openings in the front part of the sheath. With this weapon the warrior stabs 
the enemy in the throat, as Mithras strikes the bull behind the shoulder. A modi- 
fied form was the Sword-dagger, of which two are sometimes represented with the 
Pharaoh : it was generally carried in the belt This shape of weapon found its 




Fig. 169.- -Assyrian Dacgbks» Sheaths, and Bslts. (British Musbum. 



way to the Caucasus ; * and the Georgian Khanjar, hanging to the girdle in the 
place of the Sword, is also a survival. 

The Egyptian weapon is of various lengths. The bronze blade of Amunoph II., 
found by Wilkinson at Thebes, measures only five and a quarter inches : others 
rise to seven and even ten. Mr. Salt's specimen in the British Museum covers 
eleven and a half inches, including the handle ; and others reach one foot, and even 
sixteen inches. Many of these blades taper from an inch and a half to two- thirds 



feathers are of equal length. The Romans adopted 
it as a military decoration. * Your courage has not 
yet given your helmet wherewithal to shade your face 
from the burning sun,* say the Kurds, who add to the 
crest a new feather for every foe slain in fight The 
Somal, after victory or murder, stick the white variety 
in the mop-head. We still use the phrase * a feather 
in his cap.* The 'Prince of Wales' feather* is an 
Egyptian ideograph of Truth. Mr. Gerald Massey 
seems to think that Wilkinson s * ThmeV (II. chap, 
viii.) is *only a backward rendering of the Greek 

^'Themis''*; that the feathers are *Shu^ ( CC)* ^^^ 



that the goddess is 'J/a' (^^.— »), or 'Matt,* 

But surely the root of Themis would be in * Ta-Ma^* 
the Goddess (of Truth) ? 

* Compare Reui^ Heb. and Ar., 'he saw'; Gr. 
tpdMy and Lat. Ra-dius, 

• Colonel A. Lane Fox remarks that the groove 
which is constant in these Caucasian blades is a little 
out of the central line, and does not correspond on each 
side, an alternation showing that it is derived from 
the ogee form. I have suggested that the idea arose 
from the arrow-head 'bellied on a twist,' and have 
figured the weapon in the next page (fig. 1 70). 



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i6o 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD 



of an inch near the point Dr. John Evans ' has a Sword, found at * Great Kantara ' 
during the construction of the Suez Canal ; the blade is leaf-shaped, and measures 
seventeen inches, and the whole length twenty-two inches and three-eighths (fig. 165). 
' Instead of a hilt-plate, it is drawn down to a small tang about three-sixteenths of an 
inch square. This again expands into an octagonal bar about three-eighths of an 
inch in diameter, which has been drawn down to a point, and then turned back to 
form a hook, perhaps the earliest mode of hanging to the belt' At the base of the 
blade are two rivet-holes, and the hilt must have been formed of two pieces which 
clasped the tang. Dr. Evans also mentions a bronze Sword-blade, presumably 
from Lower Egypt, in the Berlin Museum : it has an engraved line down each 





Fig. X7a— Daggkr from thb 
Caucasus. 



Fig. 171.— EcvrriAN 
Choppbr-Swords. 



Fig. X73,— Egyptian Khopsh 



side of the blade ; it is more uniform in width than the Kantara specimen, and the 
hilt is broken off. 

Not a few Egyptian Swords are much thicker at the middle than at the edges, 
and many are slightly grooved. The bronze is so well tempered, either by hammer- 
ing, by hydraulic pressure, or by phosphorisation (?), that it has retained spring and 
pliability after several thousand years, and is still elastic like the steel of our modern 
days. I have already noticed * the Passalacqua and the Harris daggers — both from 
Thebes. The dagger-handle was generally covered in part with metal like that of 
the Sword ; and the sewing of the leather-sheath again recalls the hide-scabbard of 
the Somal.' The Egyptians, as the hieroglyphs prove, had also single-edged 



' Br<mae, ^r'c, p. 298. ■ Chap. v. 

' Reluming from the exploration of Harar (1853), 



I sent a small collection of Somali weapons to the 
United Service Institution. 



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EGYPTIAN SWORDS, 



i6i 



cutting-knives shorter than Swords, and apparently of steel ; they resemble our 
flesh-knives,* and may correspond with the Greek \iaxaipai (Ang.-Sax. Mec/ie), 
while the daggers proper represent the iyxecpiSia and the parazonia. 

The long Sword must have been rare or rather barbaric, for it is seldom found 
in the pictures and bas-reliefs. Yet Rosellini figures one which resembles an 
Espadon or heavy two-handed weapon of our Middle Ages. An inscription of 
Ramses takes as booty from the Maxyes (Cyrenians) of Libya one hundred and 
fifteen Swords of five cubits (seven and a half feet), and one hundred and twenty- 
four of three cubits long. 





Fig. X74.— Shapes of Egyptian 
Blauhs. (Meyrick.) 




Fig. 173.— Bronze Daggers and Sheath (i foot longX 
(From Theban Tomb, Berlin Museum.) 



Fig. 175.— Sword-D aggers. 



Meyrick,* in his general introduction to the weapons of all nations (vol. i. PI. i), 
gives two forms of Egyptian blades, or rather choppers. One (^, fig. 174) is a 
straight bill-shaped cutting-blade with the tip upturned, and the handle is provided 
with cords and tassels. This is in fact the old Turkish Scymitar and its offshoots, 
of which I have already spoken ; and thus Egypt led to the chopper-types, which 
will presently be noticed. The other (t) is a curved Scymitar, with a bevelled end 
and a double cord at the hilt.' The former seems to be an imitation of the obsidian 
flake : the latter is a development of the Khopsh or sickle-Sword. 



* The form is accurately preserved in the formid- 
able Afghan * Charay * or one-edged knife. 

* A Critical Inquiry ^ &c. 



■ I have shown that the heraldic Sword in the 
East preserves this double sword-knot (chap. vii.). 



M 



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i62 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

And here I must temporarily abandon the chronological for the geographical 
order, and briefly treat of the Sword in modem Africa. 

In the Dark Continent, as in the New World, the weapon has scant importance. 
Reviewing the arms of the former ' Quarter,' we must conclude that its favourites 
are the war-axe (employed in rough work), and the spear * (used in fine work) ; 
while the Sword proper is confined, as a rule, to Moslem Africa. 

We have seen that in olden time the Mashaua (Maxyes) of Libya, bordering 
upon Egypt, used large Swords. The Adyrmachidae, or * first Libyans ' of Hero- 
dotus (iv. 1 68), called by Silius Italicus (iii. 219) 'gens accola Nili,' were also armed 
with curved blades. 

Denham and Clapperton inform us that the Knights of Malta exported great 
numbers of the straight double-edged blades which they affected, to Benghazi, in 
North Africa, where they were exchanged for bullocks. From the Tripolitan they 
were borne across the Sahard to Bomu, to Hausa-land, and to Kano, where they 
were remounted for the use of the negroid Moslem population. Modem travellers 
note that the trade still continues at Kano, where some fifty thousand blades were 
annually imported across the Mediterranean — the reason is that these negroids 
cannot make their own. Hence they are passed on to the Pule (Fulah) and Fulbe 
tribes, the Hausas, the Bornuese, and others dwelling in the north-western interior. 
The great Mandenga family, miscalled Mandingos, are also purchasers of 
European blades, which they mount and sheathe for themselves. Far to the 
south-east Mr. Henry M. Stanley {Joe, cit i. 454) notes that the * King of Kishakka 
possesses an Arab scimitar, which is a venerated heirloom of the royal family, and 
the sword of the founder of that kingdom ' (?). 

Barth (Travels') has left us accurate though scanty details concerning the 
weapons of the North-Westem and West-Central Africa. * Spears and Swords ' 
(say the people) * are the only manly and becoming weapons.' The blade, mostly 
made at Solingen,* characterises the free and noble Amoshdgh or Imoshdgh ; and 
all travellers remark that it preserves the old knightly form of crusading days ; the 
low-caste Tawdrik carry only the lance and the regular African Telak or arm-knife. 
The Forawy trust almost wholly to their Swords : the Kel-Owy (Khayl, or people, 
of the Owi Valley) and the Kel-Geres carry spear. Sword, and dagger. The Imgdd, 
a degraded tribe of the negroid Berbers, are not allowed to use either Sword or 
spear : similarly the bow is confined to the servile caste among the Somal, The 
son of the Kazi, near Agades, was armed with an iron spear. Sword, and dagger 
(vol. i. 395) : a Musghu chief had a boomerang-Sword (Front vol. iii.). Few of 
the Baghirmi can afford ' Kaskara ' (Swords), and they rarely wear the Kinyd or 
arm-knife : the favourite weapon of these races, as well as the Kamuri or Bomavis, 

* The Baghirmi, according to Denham, adore a club. At Baroda in Gujarit superstitious honours 

long lance of peculiar construction: this spear- are paid to the Gaekhwar*8 golden cannons with silver 

worship is also practised by the Marghi and the wheels. 

Musghu. It extended from ancient Rome to certain » English and Styrian razors are also largely im- 

of the Pacific Isles ; while the Fijians worship the war- ported. 



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THE SWORD IN AFRICA. 163 

IS the Njiga or Goltyo, which has been noticed under the name of Danisko.* It is a 
short and double-pointed Egyptian hand-bill, thrown, as well as used for cutting. 
At Sokoto the traveller found good iron (iv. 180): at Kano^ in Hausaland, he 
observed a blacksmith making, with the rudest tools, a leaf-shaped dagger, a long- 
ribbed, highly decorated, and ve^y sharp blade. The Tawdrik call the smith * Enhad ' ; 
in Timbukhtu he becomes the Mu'allim or artist. 

The Sword-play of North Africa is that of Arabia and India, apparently bor- 
rowed from the original Sword-dance.* In Tangier it is picturesquely described by 
a lively Italian writer, Edmondo de Amicis.^ * There were three swordsmen, and 
they useS the stick in pairs. It is impossible to do justice to the extravagance and 
buffoonery i^goffagini) of that school : I call it so because we saw the same style in 
the other cities of Marocco. There were all the movements of the rope-dance, high 
leaps without object, contusions, leg-actions, and blows, announced a whole minute 
before by an immense sweep of the arm. Everything was done with a holy phlegm 
which would have allowed one of our experts to have distributed, amongst all four, 
a volley of blows without the least risk of receiving one.' 

The old Egyptian Sword-types spread deep into the Dark Continent, and preser\'^e 
their forms to the present day. The SomaFs weapon shows the straight or spear- 
blade. The Shotel or Abyssinian Sword (fig. 176) is a direct descendant from the 
Khopsh-falchion. Nothing less handy than this gigantic sickle ; the edge is inside, 
the grip is too small, and the difficulty of drawing the blade from the scabbard is con- 
siderable. The handle, four inches long, is a rude lump of black wood, and the tang 
is carried to the pommel and there clinched. The coarse and ugly blade has a mid- 
rib running the whole length, forming a double slope to the edges ; it is one inch broad 
at the base, and tapers to a point which can hardly be used. The length along the 
arc is three feet thirty-seven inches ; the curve, measuring from arc to chord, is two 
inches ; and the projection beyond the directing line is four inches. The rough 
scabbard of untanned hide is shod with a hollow brass knob, a ferule ruder even 
than the blade ; and a large iron buckle affixed to the top of the scabbard under 
the haft, connects with a belt or waist-strap. Such a weapon never belonged 
to a race of Swordsmen.* 

The Africo-Arab tribes of the Upper Nile (e.g. the Bisharfn) also preserve Egyp- 
tian forms derived from the Lisdn-stick. The Galla Sword is shorter and simpler 
than the Egyptian. But the Flissa of Northern Africa, the Yataghan whose type, 

' Chap. viii. lived in Abyssinia between 1520 and 1527, shows the 

* Athenasus (i. 27) speaks of the Thracian dance Bamagais {Bahr-Negush^ or sea-ruler) begging the 
in arms, 'men jumping up very high with light Portuguese ambassador for his rich Sword and orna- 
springs, and using Swords.' At last one of them ments, * as the great lords have few Swords ' (chap, 
strikes another, so that it seemed to everyone that xxx.). Prester John (the Negush or Emperor) dis- 
the man was wounded. plays • five bundles of short Swords with silver hilts,' 

» MaroccOy page 66 (Milano, Treves, 1876). taken from the Moslems (chap, cxiii.). The King of 

* Hence the ardent desire of the Abyssinians, Portugal sends as a present to Prester John * first a 
when first visited by Europeans, to obtain civilised gold Sword with a rich hilt,* and a good fencer, 
Svirords. Father F. Alvarez {HakluytSoc, 1881), who Estevam Pallarte. 



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THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



by the support of the Due d'Aumale, supplied France for years with a bad bayonet, 
if borrowed from the Lisdn, has assumed a peculiar curve. Colonel A. Lane-Fox 
looks upon this Flissa of the Kabyles (=Kabdil, the tribes) as resembling the 
* Kopis-blade straightened, like those represented in the hands of the Greek warrior 
on the vase in the Museum at Naples/ * Nothiqg can be better adapted for close 
fight than the handy stabbing weapon : stuck on the end of a musket, and making 
the barrel top-heavy, nothing can be worse. But, as the * military tailor ' in the 
British army seeks the philosopher's stone in the shape of a suit of uniform that 
shall be at once warm and cool, heavy and light, airy and impermeable to wet, 





i 

\ 



Fig. X77.— Smaller 
Abyssinian Blade. 



Fig. Z76.— Abyssinian Sword, a Larcb Sicklb. 
(Breadth at hilt, x inch ; tapers to point.) 



Fig. 178.— Abyssinian Sword in Sheath. 
(Scabbard open to allow passage of blade.) 



Fig. 179.— Flissa 
OP Kabylbs. 



handsome and lasting, cheap and good, so the Frenchman would transform the 
bayonet into a multum in parvo^ a Sword, a saw, a coupe-choux^ in fact everything 
that a bayonet is not and ought not to be. The absurd Yataghan-bayonet has only 
lately been banished from the French army, and retains its place in most Continental 
forces. 

The Sword amongst the Dankali tribes, who occupy the south-western shores 
of the Red Sea, north of the Somal, is evidently of European origin. The straight, 
thin blade, with two or more longitudinal grooves, is about four feet long, and 
broadens towards the point : the handle consists of a pommel, of a grip whipped 
with wire, and of straight quillons, forming a regular cross-guard. The modem 

» Anthrop. ColL p. 184. 



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THE SWORD IN AFRICA. 



165 



weapons are made in Germany — I believe, at Solingen, which seems to supply all 
Africa north of the Equator. 

Our age has at length realised the fact that the heart of Africa is inhabited by 
a homogeneous race speaking tongues of the same family. It is a large and strong- 
bodied people, often cannibal, and showing no likeness with the negro of the tobac- 
conist-shops. Scattered amongst these man-eaters, and possibly the aborigines of 
the country, are comparatively dwarfish tribes, evidently the crane-fighting Pygmies 
of Homer and Herodotus, now known from their various clans, Akd, Tikitiki, 
Doko, Wambilikimo (two-cubiters), and so forth. Both the dwarfs and the (com- 
parative) giants, of whom the Mpdngwe, or Fans, first became known in Europe, are 
metal workers, and both work well. 
They despise arms and tools that 
chip and snap, and therefore prefer 
to ours, with ample reason, their 
charcoal-smelted native produce, 
and they temper it by many suc- 
cessive heatings and hammerings 
without water-quenching.* Accord- 
ing to Major Serpa Pinto (ii. 128) 
the Barotse temper their iron with 
ox-grease' and salt He notes, 
however (ii. 356), that the Gan- 
guellas 'manufacture steel out of 
wrought iron, tempered by cold 
water, into which the metal is 
thrown while hot.' 

The Gaboon river also pro- 
duces the Babanga ' (?), a leaf- 
shaped Sword with a square end, made at Batta, and used by the Mpdngwe ; a Glaive 
also leaf-shaped with a long handle, having a point at the butt end, and Swords 
with triangular blades more or less broadened at the apex. 

Upon the glorious Congo river * I was shown a Sword belonging to the Mijolos 
or Mijeres, a tribe inhabiting the upper valley. All declared it to be of native 
make, and used during the Sword-dance performed in presence of the Prince. But 
it is an evident copy of some weapon of the fifteenth century ; and the knightly 
model, like that of the Mpdngwe (Fan) cross-bow, had drifted into the African 
interior. The handle and its pommel were of ivory (in poorer weapons wood is 
used) : the guard was a thin bar of iron springing from the junction of blade and 





Fig. x8o.— Dankali Sword. 



Fig. x8x.— Congo Sword. 



* Gorilla-land^ p. 227. 

* Quenching in oil or grease instead of water is a 
common practice. The workman still 'adds to the 
water a thin cake of grease, or pours over it hot oil, 
through which the steel must pass before it enters the 



water, for by these means it is prevented from acquir- 
ing cracks and flaws.* (Beckmann, loc. cit, ii. 330.) 

■ Specimens of all these weapons are in the Lane- 
Fox Collection, Nos. 1088 to 1 100. 

* The Cataracts of tlu Congo, p. 234. 



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1 66 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 




grip ; forming an open oval-shaped pas ddne below, and prolonged upwards and 
downwards in two quillons or branches, parallel with the hilt and protecting the 
hand. The blade, which had a tang for hefting, was straight, flexible, and double- 
edged. 

In the Despotism of Unyoro, on the northern shores of the (Victoria) Nyanza 
Lake, Sir Samuel Baker found a knife of the Egyptian leaf-shape, the Lingida di 
Bove of the Italians. The blade has a high mid-rib, and the handle is whipped 

round with copper wire. It is evidently used, 
like the Somal weapon, for stabbing as well as 
cutting. 

The Arabs of Zanzibar preserve the old 
two-handed weapon of Europe, with a thin, 
flattish, double-edged blade ending in a bevelled 
point, and much resembling the executioner's 
Sword prolonged. They bear the Solingen 
mark. Zanzibar, ho^vever, has two Swords. 
The shorter weapon (^z, fig. 183) is three-grooved 
and single-edged, the blade measuring one foot 
ten inches ; the handle and sheath are of copper, 
embossed or engraved, and adorned with fine 
stones. The second {by fig. 183), which is the 
usual shape carried by Arab gentlemen, is three 
feet to three and a half feet long ; the long 
tang tapers towards the hilt, and is cased In 
wood and leather ; the pommel is cylindrical, 
and the grip wants guard and quillons. Demmin 
(p. 396) finds it * difficult to understand how 
this singular weapon could be wielded.* It 
serves mostly for show, and when wanted is 
used like a quarterstaff with both hands. But 
the Zanzibari's Sword is always clumsy, as 
dangerous to the wielder as the old blade of 
the Gauls and Ancient Britons. Their cousins, the Bedawin living about Maskat, 
have conserved with a religious respect, many ancient weapons won or bought in 
older days, and possibly dating from crusading times. These valuable articles 
travelled far : the Portuguese found amongst the Moors of Malacca * Swords 
bearing in Latin the inscription " God help me." * 

The Sword is also known to the blood-stained Despotisms that border the West 
Coast of Africa— Ashanti, Dahome, and Benin. Many of the shapes are borrowed : 
such are the Maroccan Yataghan, the Turkish or rather Persian Scymitar, and the 
Malay Krfs (crease). Provided with silver hilts and scabbard mountings, they are 
generally wrapped in cloths, showing only the upper part of the sheath and grip. 



Ii 



\ 



Fig. 182.— Unyoro 
Daggek-Sworo. 



Fig. 183.— Zanzibar Swords. 



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AFRICAN SWORDS. 



167 



Some of the forms have developed till they look almost original, especially the 
short broad blades pierced with holes like fish-slicers, and ending in circinal 
curves. They suggest the well-known Indian choppers, and probably in both coun- 




FiG. Z84.— Gold Coast Swords. 
(Captain Cameroo.) 



Fig. 185.— Ashanti Sworo-Knifb. 




Fig. z86.— Swords of King Gblblb of Dahomb. 

tries they derive from Egypt In Ashanti-land and Dahome they are mostly of 
iron, some are of brass, and others of gold ; * and they are fantastically punched 

* I have noticed that arrant humbug, the cele- The thing sent to England was certainly not the great 
brated 'golden axe' which, in i88o-3i, caused the fetish which is held to be the national Palladium. An- 
last ' Ashantee scare * {To the Gold Ccastfor Cold^ ii. ). other memento of the last Ashantee war, * King Koffee*s 



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i68 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



into chevrons and pierced with open-work. These • fish-slicers ' are used in sacri- 
fice and in beheading, an operation which they perform very badly. Mr. Henry 
M. Stanley * refers to * long-handled cleaver-like weapons ' amongst the savages of Ma- 

kongo ; and to iron bill-hooks and ' massive cleaver- 
looking knives with polished blades ' in Karagwd 

Gezo,* the warrior king of Dahome or Ffon-land, 
who loved variety in, as well as number of, weapons, 






Fig. 187.— Bbhbading Sword. 
Cutch ; also used in Africa. 



Fig. x88.— Wasa (Wassaw) Sword. 

Gold plates on wood, sewn with wire, 
and then beaten until the stitches 
can scarcely be seen. 



Fig. X89.— King Blay's Sword. 

Gold leaf stamped and beaten. Sworn 
by before going to war, ' If I come 
back, cut my head off.' 



manufactured Swords with two blades like scissors. He also had in terrorem a 
company of * Amazons,* called Razor-women, from the * Nyek-ple-nen-toh * blade. 
This was simply a European razor on a large scale, with a steel of thirty inches 



umbrella, an article of prodigious proportions, and of 
gaudy material,' only returned to where it was made. 
The type of the latter may be seen in most Italian 
market-places, shading the old women's fruits and 



vegetables ; and Manchester, I believe, had the 
honour of building it. 

» Through the Dark Continent ^ i. 21. 

' Described in my MUsion to Dahome^ passim. 



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AFRICAN SWORDS. 



169 



rising from a plain handle of black wood, and kept open by a spring. It was 
used to decapitate prisoner-kings, and the very look of it made the lieges tremble. 

My friend Captain Cameron * gives interesting details concerning the Sword in 
parts of Africa which he first visited, and he has kindly sent me a specimen of the 
Manyuema (Maniwema) Swordlet drawn to scale. He describes the Wahumla tribe 
as using double-edged blades of iron shaped like those of the Roman legionary. The 
chiefs adorn their steel blades with neat open-work in various patterns, and some 
carry a fringe of bells all along the lower 
side of the sheath. The belt of twisted 
hide loops into a rolled fur (often otter- 
skin), and ends in two bells : it is slung 
over the left shoulder. The Rehombo 
chiefs use similar blades with broad and 
crescent-shaped edges ; the commoners 
are armed with heavy spears, and short 
knives, also used when feeding. 

The people of the central Copper- 
lands * have only long knives shaped like 
spear-heads. Stanley (ii. 81) calls them 
' short Swords scabbarded with wood, to 
which are hung small brass and iron 
bells.' The Swords used by the chiefs 
under 'King Kasongo' are left unde- 
scribed : • these weapons appear to be 
like those seen by me on the Congo. 
These negroes have a kind of sham 
attack in honour, a custom well known 
amongst the Bedawin. 'When suffi- 
ciently bedaubed * (with pipeclay or cin- 
nabar) * the chief returned the bag to his 
boy, and, drawing his Sword, rushed at 
Kasongo, seemingly intent upon cutting 
him down ; but just before reaching him, 
he suddenly fell on his knees, driving the 
Sword into the ground and rubbing his 
forehead in the dust' 

The Poucue (Pokw^) of the Lunda chiefs is not allowed to the people. This 
weapon (fig. 191) has also found its way from Egypt into lands far south of the 
Equator, and may be traced in the dagger-formed knives of the Ovampos. It 




Fic. 19a— Captain Cambron's Manyubma Swordlbt, 
Shbath, and Bslt. z. Copper ; a. Wood : \. Steel : 
4. Wood ; s- Skin. 



» Across Africa f vol. i. pp. 121, 139 ; vol. ii. 



104. 



* The famous copper mines of the Congo region, 



whose yield, says Barbot, was mistaken for gold, are 
noticed in The Cataracts of the Cottgo^ pp. 45, 46. 
■ Capt«iin Cameron has brought home specimens. 



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170 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



is a large two-edged knife, tliree spans long by four inches broad : the sheath is 
of leather, and the weapon hangs under the left arm.* The Pokwd not a little re- 
sembles the short leaf-shaped iron blades from the Gaboon River, West Africa ; 
and these again suggest the Swords and the spear-heads of the * Bronze Age.* 
Stanley (ii. 228) shows the * Baswa knife* on the Upper Congo exactly resembling 
the Pokwd ; these weapons * vary in size from a butcher's cleaver to a lady's dirk * {J), 
He also found * splendid long knives, like Persian Kummars * (Khanjars ?) and 
* bill-hook Swords.' 

The Habshi people inhabiting Janjh/ra (El Jezfrah=the island), off the West 
Coast of India, south of Bombay, retain a curious relic of their African origin. 




Fig. X9Z. — PoKwi of thb Cazxmbb's 
Chibfs. 





Fig. Z93.— Clbavbr op thb Habshi 
Pboplb. 



Fig. X93.— Gaboon Swords, both bvidbmtly Egyptian. 

These negroids, who call themselves Abyssinians, are originally WdsawAhfli from 
Zanzibar. Their cleaver is a straightened Khopsh wholly of iron, handle, plain cross- 
guard and pommel (fig. 193). The blade is fifteen inches broad, the back is an inch 
and a half thick, and the weapon is as heavy as a man can wield. These ex-pirates, 
under the Habshi Nawwdb, are still feared, on account of their great strength * and 
violent temper, by all their effeminate Indian neighbours. It is well to note that 
in case of another * Indian Mutiny,* we can easily raise on the eastern coast of 
Africa a negroid force sufficient to put it down. 

Colonel A. Lane-Fox ' remarks that one of the most peculiar forms of Sword 



> From O Muata Cazembe^ which also contains a 
long and valuable description of the copper mines 
in South-Eastem Africa, worked by the people since 
olden time. 

* According to Marco Polo (lib. iii. cap. 34), the 
men of Zanghibar (2Ianzibar) are ' both tall and stout, 



but not tall in proportion to their stoutness, for if 
they were, being so stout and brawny, they would be 
absolutely like giants; and they are so strong that 
they will carry for four men and eat for five.' 

» Anthrop. ColL p. 135. 



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AFRICAN SWORDS. 



171 



used in Africa is the corrugated, having an ogee-section. On each face a portion 
of the blade is sunk on one side only, and on the other face the depression is 
on the reverse side. Thus the transverse section somewhat re- 
sembles the angles of the letter Z. We can understand the use 
of this device when adapted to the pile of the arrow or the 
javelin. It would give the weapon a rotatory motion on the 
principle of the screw-propeller, the action being only reversed 
instead of the screw propelling itself by acting upon the sur- 
rounding medium : in this case the air impinges upon the screw 
flanges and rotates the arrow, thereby increasing the accuracy 
of its flight. But the peculiarity has been preserved where it is 
wholly useless ; and, curious to say, this ogee-form is persistent in 
all the Swords obtained from the Caucasus, while the iron blades 
of Saxon and Prankish spears discovered in the graves of England 
and France have the same distinctive. Both may have derived it 
from Egypt : the Caucasians through Colchis, and Western Europe 
by means of the Phoenicians. The illustration is taken from the 
* Pagan Saxondom * of Mr. J. Y. Akerman, who was the first to 
draw attention to the strange resemblance between the Saxon 
and Hottentot spears.* 

Thus we see that whilst Egypt originated the three shapes of 
Sword-blades— straight, curved, and half-curved — the rest of Africa 
invented positively nothing in hoplology. Negroids and negroes either borrowed 
their weapons from Egypt or imported them from beyond the sea. Intertropical 
Africa never imagined an alphabet, a plough, or a Sword. 




Fig. 194.— Frankish 
Blade, with Mid- 
Groove out of 
Ckntrb. 



> The Joum, Anthrop, Inst. (August 1883) has 
printed an excellent paper * On the Mechanical 
Methods of the Ancient Egyptians.* Mr. W. M. 
Flinders Petrie believes that Uiey cut diorite with 



lathes and jewel graving-points (diamond ? or corun- 
dum abundant in Midian ?) ; and that the diamond 
was the * piercing- stone * of early Babylonian Inscrip- 
tions. 



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172 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE SWORD IN KHITA-LAND, PALESTINE AND CANAAN ; PHCENICIA AND 
CARTHAGE ; JEWRY, CYPRUS, TROY, AND ETRURIA. 

Centuries before the Hebrews had left the Delta, a great empire bounded Nile- 
land on the Asiatic side, reflecting Egypt as the New World reflects the Old ; in 
fact what Kemi was to the West, that Khita-land was to the East. The people 

were known to the Nile-dwellers as the Khita, Kheta, or Sheta of in c^^:^. The 

Hebrews from the days of Abraham to the age of Nehemiah and the Captivity, 
called them D^nn, Khitfm (our Hittites), or the * children of Heth.' * A hunting- 
inscription of Tiglath-Pileser (Tigulti-pal-Tsira) the First, B.C 1120-1100, men- 
tions the JJ< ^igy ^y, Kha-at-te (Khatte) ; * he makes them dwell on * the upper 
Ocean of the Setting Sun.* The Greeks translated from Hebrew FiJ XerrtfJ/x, and 
termed the race Xfrrti/x- and XsttecvL They are the iralpot Kijretoi (Keteian or 
Cetian* auxiliaries) of Homer (*Odys.* xi. 520), whose leader Eurypylus, was slain 
with * the copper * (Sword), and of whom many perished around him * on account 
of gifts to a woman.* 

The cradle of this race, which took the lead of Western Asia during the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth centuries B.C., was the rolling prairie between the Orontes 
and the Euphrates. Joshua represents the Lord saying : * From the wilderness 
and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of 
the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be 
your coast * (i. 4). In their palmy days they covered the interval between Egypt 
and Assyria, extending northwards to Phrygia and Cilicia ; eastwards to Meso- 
potamia and westwards to the Mediterranean. They had walled and fortified 
cities as * Tunep or Tunipa (Daphne) in the land Naharayn * * — the latter here 

' Gen. xxiii. 1 8. In 2 Sam. xxiv. 6, *Aretz them with the Kittaians (Chittim = Cypriots) of 

tahtim-hodshi ' should be read, *Aretz ha-Hittim Menander in Josephus (-4. y. ix. 14 ; Cory's Frag.^ 

Kadesh,* * the land of the Hittites of (city) Kadesh.' p. 30; London, Reeves & Turner, 1876); others 

* Trans. Soc, Bib. Archaology^ vol. v. part 2, with the people of Kiti (the circle), the Heb. Galil or 

p. 354. They were then the paramount nation in Galilee. 

Syria, from the Euphrates to the Libanus; and the * * Two-river' (land) is mostly applied to the 

Assyrians knew the region as Mat-Khatte. great Interamnian plain, Mesopotamia. Here it 

" Wild work has been made with this word. must mean Syria proper; and Aram Naharayn 

Some render it 'large * (i.e. whale-like); the scholiast (Highlands of the Two Streams) admirably describes 

calls the Cctians a people of Mysia ; others confound Palestine, which is composed of a double anticlinal 



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THE HITTITES. 



173 



meaning Upper Palestine — Arathu (Aradus) ; Hamatu (Hamath, the high city) ; 
Khalbu or Khilibu (Aleppo) ; * Kazantana (Gozanitis) ; Nishiba (Nisipis) and 
Patena, which gave rise to *Padan-Aram' and to 'Batanaea,' Their northern 
capital was Carchemish (the Gr. Hierapolis and the modern Yardblus),* on the 
Euphrates, lately explored : some explain the word as * Kar ' (town of) * Chemish ' 
the Moab-god) ; others by * Khem * or * Chemmis/ the Egyptian Pan. It was 
captured by Sargon (B.C. 717), and became the head-quarters of an Assyrian 
Satrapy. Their sacred city was Kadesh (KaSiyp, the holy), a synonym of El-Kuds, 
the Arabic name for Jerusalem ; and even of the City of David it was said (Ezek. 
xvi. 3), * her father was an Amorite and her mother a Hittite/ A 
Hittite tribe extended to the southernmost frontiers of Palestine 
(Gen. xxiii. passim) ; Hebron, one of their settlements, was founded, 
we are told, seven years before Zoan (* a station for loading animals '), 
alias San or Tanis, the capital of the Egyptian ' Shepherd-Kings.' 
But the allusion must be to Sesostris-Ramses (II.), who also made 
San his capital under the name of * Pi- (city of) Ramessu,* not to the 
original building by King Pepi of the Sixth Dynasty, who pre- 
ceded Abraham by a thousand years. 

The Hittites were governed by twelve * kings,' probably satraps, 
under the Khita-sir or supreme chief. The * kings of the Hittites ' 
are mentioned as joining the Egyptians (2 Kings iii. 6)? Although 
the Hebrews were ordered utterly to destroy the race, their books 
prove that the Khita were often in intimate relation with the in- 
truders, as in the case of Uriah the Hittite, one of the thirty of David's 
body-guard. They worshipped Baal Sutech (Sutekh) the War-god, 
the ' man of war,* a counterpart of Amun, with his wife (Sakti or 
active energy), Astartha-Anata, and they also venerated Targatha, 
Derketo or Atargatis — two Syro-Greek words for one and the 
same person. The Egyptians at times rank the Khita as a ' great people,* and 
their habitat as a * great country ' ; holding them, in fact, almost as their peers : 
they also speak with reverence of their gods. Like their neighbours of Kemi, the 
* Hittites * were a literary nation : the monuments of Nile-land mention a certain 
Kirab-sar (or sir), * writer of the books of the Chief of the Khita,' and the determi- 
native is papyrus or parchment Hebron was also originally called *Kirjath- 
(Kariyat) Sepher * — settlement of books. 



Fig. 195. 
Cyprian Dagger. 



river-valley formed by the larunata (Jordan) and the 
Arunata (Orontes). The whole length and breadth 
of the country is dbtributed between the two, with 
the exception of the small Litani watershed. 

* The * Aram wine from Halybon * was produced 
at Helbun (Halbdun, the inhabitants call it), a gorge- 
village near Damascus. Being Moslems, they no 
longer ferment their grape-juice ; but the fruit is still 
famous. The Helbun people speak the broadest 



dialect, and are a perpetual laughing-stock to the 
Damascus citizens. The Aleppites derive their 
*Halab* (Aleppo) because Abraham there milked 
{halaba) a cow ; but the place is older than the 
Genesitic flood, the Flood. 

* This word is corruptly written Jerablus, Jorablus, 
Jirabis, &c 

" In Rawlinson's Herodotus (i. 463) we find that 
the Southern Hittites numbered twelve kings. 



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174 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



The Khita were formidable opponents to Kemi between the seventeenth and 
the fourteenth centuries B.C. They fought doughtily against Thut-mes III. 
{circa B,c. 1 6oo) during his Syrian campaign, when this * Alexander the Great of 
Egyptian history ' overthrew the chief of Kadesh, built a fortress on the Lebanon- 
range and mastered * Naharayn.' ^ Three centuries later, Kadesh was taken by 
Osirei or Seti I. (B.c 1 366). A few years afterwards took place the great cam- 
paign of his son,* Ramses II., or the Great, * who made Egypt anew,' and who is 
famous as the Sesostris of Herodotus.^ He was nearly defeated at the historic 
battle of * Kadesh, the wicked * ; * but at last he succeeded in * throwing the foe 
one upon another, head over heels into the waters of the Orontes.' Wilkinson 
(i. 400) shows a city with a double moat, crossed by two bridges : at the outer 
defence, formed by the river running into a lake, a phalanx of the Khita is drawn 
up as a reserve corps. 'Wonderfully rich,' says Brugsch, *is the great picture 
which represents the fight of the chariots : while the gigantic form of Ramses,* in 
the very midst of the hostile war-cars, performs deeds of derring-do, astonishing 
friend and foe, his gallant son, Prahiunamif, commander-in-chief of the charioteers, 
heads the attack upon those of the enemy. The Khita warriors are thrown into 
the river, and among them is the King of Khilibi (Aleppo), whom the warriors try 
to revive by holding his legs in the air with his head hanging down.' ® This was 



* The decisive action is shown on an Egyptian 
tomb (Brugsch, i. 291). 

' Ramses left as memorials of his invasion three 
hieroglyphic tablets cut upon the rocks on the south 
side of the embouchure of the Nahr el-Kalb (Dog or 
Wolf River, the Lycus), a few miles north of the 
Venerable Bayrut (Berylus, &c.). They mark the 
ancient road which ascended the rough torrent-gorge 
to its origin in Caelesyria (El-Bukd'a). Even since 
these pages have been written the coffins and 
mummies of Ramses II. and his daughter have been 
found at Dayr el-Bahri in Upper Egypt, and con- 
veyed from Thebes to Bulak by Dr. Emil Brugsch. 
The same collector has been equally lucky with the 
remains of Seti I., although Selzoni, who discovered 
the tomb, sent the sarcophagus to the Sloane Museum. 

■ Sesostris derives from Ses^ SeUsu, SesUsUt or 
StsiurOf i.e. *Sethosis, also called Ramses* (Seti- 
son ?). The Greek Sesostris combines, I have said, 
the lives of Seti and his son Ramses. According to 
Brugsch, he is the * Pharaoh of the Oppression,* and 
the son of the unnamed Princess (Merris ? Ther- 
mutis?) who 'found Moses in the bull-rushes.' 

The Princess Thermutis, says Josephus, named 
Moshe (Moses) from mo {md » water) and usfs^ those 
who are saved out of it (ses = to reach land). Possibly 
it b il/«-j« = water-son. Josephus was sorely of- 
fended by the ' calumnies * of Manetho ; this Egyptian 
priest, who wrote under Ptolemy Philadelphus about 
the time of the LXX, declared that the Hebrews 
were a familia of leprous slaves who, when expelled 
from Egypt, were led by a renegade priest called 



Osarsiph (Osiris-Sapi, god of underworld) ; and that 
the number was swollen by Palestinian strangers 
driven out by Amenophis. He gives the number of 
lepers and unclean at 250,000 ( « 50,000 x 5), and the 
Hyksos, another impure race, number also 250,000. 
The learned classics accented this view, duly abusing 
the ' gens sceleratissima * (Seneca), and the * odium 
generis humani * (Tacii us). 

* The site of Kadesh and the Buhayrat Hums 
(Tarn of Emessa) or B. Kutaynah, a 'broad* or 
widening of the Orontes, was first visited by Dr. 
Thomson of Bayrut in 1846. I rode about the Make 
of the land of the Amorites * in 1870 ; but found no 
ruins, or rather ruins of no importance everywhere. 
It was not then known to me that in A.D. 1200 the 
geographer Yakut {Geogr, Diet, edit. Wiistenfeld) 
had noticed the water in his day as the * Bahriyat 
Kuds * (Tarn of Kadesh). Since that lime the Palestine 
Exploration Fund (July 1881) identified the seat of 
Atesh or Kadesh with the Tell Nabi Mendeh, a 
Santon*s tomb on the highest part of the hill where 
the ruins lie. The site is on the left bank of the 
Orontes, four English miles south of the 'broad.* 
The city disappears from history after the thirteenth 
century B.C., but local legend has preserved its 
memory. 

* Prof. Ebers, who is familiar with the many por- 
traits of Ramses-Sesostris, declares that he <«as a 
handsome man with fine aquiline features, like Napo- 
leon Buonaparte. 

* This original and instinctive way to revive the 



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THE HITTITE SWORD. I75 

the victory that gave birth to the first of Epic poems, the * Song of Pentaur the 
Scribe.* 

The war ended by the Egyptian marrying the Hittite's daughter, and making 
with his father-in-law a highly-civilised extradition treaty engraved upon a silver 
plate.* Another invasion, however, took place (circa B.c 1200) under Ramses 
III. This * Rhampsinitus * of the Greeks, a compound title, Ramessu-pa-Neter 
(Ramses the god), has left inscriptions concerning his * Campaign of Vengeance * 
which cover one side of the temple of Medinah Habu : ^ amongst the conquered foes 
appears the * miserable King of Khita as a living prisoner.' 

In later times the Khita became well known to Assyrian story.' Shalmaneser 
11. (B.C. 884-852) mentions the * Hittites and the city of Petra ' (Pethor) ; he takes 
* eighty-nine cities of the land of the Hamathites,' and Rimonidri of Damascus. 
Tiglath-pileser II. (B.C. 745-727) speaks of the *city of Hamatti' (Hamath) and 
the * Arumu ' (Aramaeans). 

According to Wilkinson (I. chap, v.) the Khita are represented on the monu- 
ments, the Memnonium, Medinah Habu, and elsewhere, as a shaven race with light 
red skins. Their dress is the long Assyrian robe falling to the ankles : the hair 
is crisply curled and at times covered with the tall cap of Phrygian type. A 
characteristic article, which appears in their hieroglyphs, is the pointed and up- 
turned boot,* somewhat like the soleret of the sixteenth century. For armour 
they had square or oblong shields and quilted coats with bracelets defending their 
arms. Their weapons were bows, spears, and the short straight Sword, the modem 
flesh-chopper, then in use among their rival neighbours of the Nile Valley. 

These gallant Canaanites * were proficients in the art of war. The army was 
distributed into foot and mounted men. The former consisted of a native nucleus 
called Tuhir (Tdhir ?),* the * chosen ones,' and a host of mercenaries under Hir-pits 
or captains. Amongst these were the Shardana, Sardones, commonly trans- 
lated Sardinians ; Brugsch contends that they were Colchians, and derives from 
them * Sardonian linen.* They were armed with homed helmets and round shields, 
spears and long Swords. The Kelau or slingers appear to have been a corps d^dite 
that waited upon the Prince.^ The tactics included a regular phalanx, a herse or 

drowned endures to the present day, despite the Kasios, a name derived from the Egyptian Hazian 

wrath of the Faculty. or Hadna. 

* So called from an old Coptic town, long ruined. 
» Brugsch (ii. 68) gives the terms of the treaty as » Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. L, Essay VI I., and 

translated by Mr. Goodwin {.Records of the Past, iv. reference to Black Obelisk in British Museum. Syn- 

25) ; and adds instances to prove that it was acted chronous History of Assyria and Judaa, pp. 1-82, 

upon. Thus he explains the hitherto mysterious vol. iii. pt. i. ; Soe, Bibl, Archeology, 1874. 
countermarch, the turning back of the Hebrew ^ A Keltic word, ^/ afoot 

exodus, at the time when the emigrants were advan- * In popular Hebrew use, * Canaanite ' meant a 

cing straight upon their objective. His strong point trader. 

is the identification of *Baal-Zephon,* about which • Possibly the 'pure' (Hebr. Tohar), in which 

all the commentators have made such hopeless guesses. case the word is * Semitic ' 

He explains it by * Baal of the North (Typhon, » Brugsch, ii. chap. xiv. As a rule, slingers were 

Sutekh or Khepsh), the * Mount Kasion * of Jupiter the least esteemed of fighting men. 



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176 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

column of spearsmen like the Egyptian ; and, although the cavalry rode horses 
their * strength was in chariots/ 

* Hithism ' ^ became a study of late years, after the publication of ' Hittite 
hieroglyphs,' first discovered at Hamah, then at Aleppo, gave it an impulse. Two 
rock-inscriptions with bas-reliefs were discovered by the Rev. E. Davis (of Alex- 
andria) at Ibriz (Ab-r(z), three hours south of Eregli, the old Cybistra on the great 
Lycaonian plain.^ The finds at Carchemish added to the scanty store, and there 
are said to be Hittite seals in the British Museum. In Dr. Schliemann's *Troy' 
(p. 352), I find a Hittite hieroglyph on the stamped terra-cotta ; the middle figure 
to the right is apparently the fist or fist-shaped glove, the Egyptian symbol of the 
hand. I shall presently notice the Lycian coin and a gold incision from Cyprus. 
Three legible characters— the bull's head, the cap, and the bent arm — are traced 
to the so-called prehistoric statue of Niobe, Mount Sipylus. Evidently Hittite, 
too, is the bronze tablet in M. Pereti^'s Museum, Bayrut.' 

Modem discoveries enable us to characterise Hittite art as a blending of 
Egyptian with Assyrian, or rather Babylonian, both considerably modified. The 
former appears in the two sphinxes of Eyub, and in the winged solar disk, which 
was also borrowed by Mesopotamia from the Nile Valley. The bas-reliefs and 
gems of Assyria are reflected in the Hittite representations of the human figure ; 
but the stature is shorter, the limbs are thicker and more rounded, and the muscles 
are not so prominent At Boghaz-Keui some of the deities stand upon animals, 
a posture believed to be early Babylonian.* Here, too, the goddesses wear mural 
crowns, the decoration of the Ephesian Artemis, and Prof Sayce thence infers its 
Hittite origin. At Eyub is found the double-headed eagle which is supposed to 
be the prototype of the old Siljukian and modem European monsters.* 

The Hittite syllabary has systematic affinities with the Egyptian, as shown by 
the boot, the glove (or hand), the bent arm, the battle-axe, and the short straight 
chopper-knife. But before reading these ideographs it was necessary to determine 
the language, and here difficulties arose. Prof Sayce denies that the Khita were 
Semites or spoke a Semitic tongue ;^ and in this he is followed by Mr. W. St. 
Chad Boscawen. But the former contended with scant success, that the Cypriote 

> The Rev. William Wright, missionary at Da- Biblical phrase (Psalm ex. i) which had a literal 

masciis, first suggested that the Hamath inscriptions signification. 

were Hittite. The study was begim in 1872 by the * For the two-headed eagle in Moslem heraldry 

late Dr. A. D. Mordtmann at Constantinople, where (a.d. 1 190 and 121 7), see p. 108 of Rogers Bey*s 

is the original of the silver Hittite dish represented in valuable paper before quoted (chap. vii.). 
the British Museum. • His chief argument for their Northern origin 

» Treats. Soc. Biblical ArchaoL vol. iv. pt. 2, ^"^ *® ^ founded upon their boots ; he forgets, 

o^g however, that the Arabs of Mahommed's day wore 

.,,,,, ^, ^ , *Khuff;*and that legal ablutions were modified to 

» Descnbed by M. Clermont-Ganneau m the '^^^ ^^^^^ ^ ^ ^j^^ coikurnus calceatus of Pliny 

RanuArcfUologique, Dec. 1879; and figured m the ^^j ^ ^^j^^^ as we see on statues and vases, 

PaUsitfU Exploration Fund, July 1881. ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^j^ ^^ ^^^ ^I^ r^^ ^^^^^ 

« In Egypt the king rests his feet upon war- ologist Prof. P. Schrader, followed by Prof. G. 
captives ; and making a foot-stool of the enemy is a Ebers, considers the Khita to be Aramaeans. 



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HITTITE HIEROGLYPHICS. 177 

writing was * none other than the hieroglyphics of Hamath.' * Mr. Hyde Clarke 
believes that Khita, Etruscan, and Cypriote are kindred tongues ; and detects their 
symbols upon the autonomous coins of Spain. Others have supported the Scythic 
(Turanian) origin of the Hittites : in our day this was inevitable. The Rev. 
Dunbar I. Heath bravely pronounces the language Semitic and made a gallant 
attempt at interpreting the syllabary.* But nothing final can be done under 
present conditions : we have not even collected all the characters.' 

While the Khita were inlanders, the parallel shore-land of the Mediterranean 
— Syria and Palestine — was occupied by a host of Semitic and congener tribes. 
The former is a noble word and by no means the * invention of a Greek geo- 
grapher ' ; Suriyyah denotes the rocky region from Sur or Tsur ("»1T = rock), a tower 
{turris\ Tyre, the Zurai of Tiglath-pileser II., and the Tapau of the hieroglyphs. 
Thus * Syria ' and * Tyria * would be synonyms. Herodotus (vii. 63) fathered a 
sad confusion when he wrote, * The people whom the Greeks call Syrians are 
called Assyrians by the barbarians.* Assyria is from another root, "iKV (Ashur), 
supposed to signify * happiness,' and applied, as will be seen, to one of the gods. 
Syria is the hieroglyphic Khar, Kharu, or Khdlu, the * hinder-land,* that is, behind 
or north of Osiris (Egypt), and the Akarru or Akharu of the cuneiforms, both 
from the ' Semitic * root Akhr. * Palestine * (Syria) is simply the * land of the 
Philistines,* the Zahi of the hieroglyphs and mediaeval Filistfn ; this powerful 
family, probably connected with the Hyksos, extended eastward from the confines 
of Egypt, and built Pelusium — * Philistine-town,' not town of irrjXjos or mud. 

' And Carchemish. * On the Hamathite Inscrip- phonetic value * tarku,' and is interchanged with t 
lions,; Trans, Soc. Bibl. ArchaoL vol. i. pt. i, 1876, ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^^^ ^^^ spear-he^d, 

and vii. 298-443, on Tamk-Ummun. * '» o c * '» i^» | ^ r^^ 

« Mr. Heath kindly explained to me the key of his with the stirrup ( ^^^ ^ ^) appear to represent a 

system published in the Joum. Anthrop, Insiit, May patronymic— ATw. The second sign (^ku\ which 

1880. The figures at Ibriz having suggested *Semit- seems to be the first pers. sing, of the Aor., can 

Urn,' he separated root^etters from formatives and y^ ^^^^^^ .^ ^^ ^^ ^^ characters by (^ ; 

found three Aramaian suffixes, /-iw, /->w«, and /-nun, ^ *r ^ >ui/ 1 

These gave an immense probabUity that he had hit whence Mr. Sayce inferred the latter to be an adjec- 

upon the/, «, i, and A, Meanwhile Mr. Boscawen tival participial affix = 11. Similarly .|. =/, the ace 

(Pal. Expl. Fund, July 1881) contends that our piy, . ^^^ ^ .|. ^^^ jh^ biUngual boss also 
•knowledge of Hittite is confined to four syllabic 

characters and the ideographs.* The Rev. Mr. Sayce ^^^^^ |||| or /" %-»f». the third pers. sing, present 
was good enough to explain to me how tie had deter- HH |||| 

mined eleven values. A comparison of inscriptions, tense, and we find indifferently jiil and *(• . The 
with the silver boss of Tarkodemos as a poin/ de cUpart^ o o Q\ 

.uggested 10 him that the stirrup-shape (Q) marks ^^ p,^ is m but the pronunciation is not deter- 
the nom. sing, of proper names, and this in the , ^ ^^ . , . , , 

Egyptian and Assyrian monuments ends in x. He '^»'^^- ^« ^« " ^^« *^ ^^ *^« ^^ ^' ^^*^ 

assumes that adjectives agree with their substantives, boot ( ^ — f^ ), suggested to be the third pers. plur. 

which they follow by taking the same suffixes. He of the Aorist. Lastly, the ideograph of pluraUty 

was at first dUposed to make the broken k Q| or ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^ verbs is ) (. 
jQ, which curiously resembles an old Egyptian sign, • d^. Guyther, visiting the Merash citadel, has 

signify * and * (cop. conjunct.) ; but the incised in- found several new characters in a long inscription on 

scription found by Mr. Ramsey at B6r (old Tyana) a lion, and fragments of stone with other hieroglyphs 

proved it the determinative of an individual. The have been forwarded from Carchemish to the British 

goat's head seems from the bilingual boss to have the Museum. 

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178 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

Beyond the Philistines began the Phoenicians^merchants and traders, tra- 
vellers, explorers, and colonisers — the ' Englishmen of antiquity.' When Hero- 
dotus brings the Phoenicians from the * Erythrean Sea ' he is generally understood 
to mean the Persian Gulf, where the islands of Tyrus (or Tylos) and Aradus are 
supposed to be the mother-sites of the homonymous Mediterranean settlements. 
The popular derivation of * Phoenicia * is from <f>oivi^, which again may have been. 
More Grceco, a mere translation of the Egyptian Kefeth, Kefthu, Keft, and Kefa, a 
palm-tree. But the question would be solved if it can be proved that the Phoeni- 
cians are the * Fenekh ' * of the monuments and the Moslem El-Fenish. Mariette 
Pasha derived the term Punoi, Poeni, from Pun or Punt, by which he understood 
Somali-land ; he is easily reconciled with Herodotus by assuming Punt to mean, as 
most understand it, the opposite Arabian coast* Thus the * Port of Punt ' is the 
mythical Red Sea (primordial matter ?), where red Typhon and the red dragon 
App or Apip (Apophis) fought against the white god Horus— the prototype of 
Baldur the Beautiful.' 

The Phoenicians left their mark upon the world. For many generations the 
Mediterranean was a * Phoenician lake,' and they could boast of a general BaXaaao- 
Kparla. This enabled their merchants and navigators to diffuse civilisation 
from Egypt and Assyria to the farthest West. They were the carriers of the 
world. Their * round ships ' or merchantmen (yavXoi) and their long war-ships 
pushed far into the Northern and Southern Atlantic. The topographical lists of 
Thut-mes HI. show a thickly inhabited country (Brugsch, i. 350-51), and, as 
Mariette Pasha says, a map of Canaan, composed of some hundred and fifteen 
hieroglyphic names, * is a synoptical table of the " Promised Land," made two hun- 
dred and seventy years before the exodus of Moses.' Among the settlements are 
Debekhu, now Baalbak, the Baal-city ; * Tum-sakhu, the gate or shrine of Tum, the 
setting sun, now Damascus ; Biarut (Aod. Bayrut) ; Keriman or Mount Carmel 
and lopoo, Joppa, or Jaffa. We find the Jordan in the Egyptian larutana, and 
Shabatuan is the Sabbaticus River of Pliny and Josephus.* 

The chief cities of Phoenicia, Tyre and Sidon, were of unexampled splendour, 
depdts of the wealth of the East, as early as B.c 1 500. The arch-Homerid, who 
curiously enough never mentions Tyre, attributes all the finest works of art either 

' Under Sliishonk (Shishak\ the contemporary scheme until the details shall have been better worked 

of Solomon, the conquered tribes of Edom and out. 

Juflah are termed the • Fenekh and the Aamu (Syro- * « Bak,* from Beki in Coptic -dty, town. 

Aramseans) of a far land.* Brugsch (ii. 210) < has a * *In Judzed rivus Sabbatis omnibus siccatur ' 

presentiment * that these Fenekh are intimately re- (Pliny, xxxi. 18). The idea doubtless arose from the 

lated to the Jews ; and he notes the similarity of intermittent springs (Siloam, &c.) about Jerusalem. 

Aamu with • Am,* the well-known Hebrew term. Josephus {B, J viii. 5. § i) makes his Sabbatic R. 

* Some have suspected Punt to be the far later break the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) by flowing only 

rindya, or Madura kingdom, in Southern India. on that day and resting during the other six. Hence 

Mariette's Punt extended from Bab el-Mandeb to the fabled Sabbation, whose flood of huge rocks and 

Cape Guardafui (• I was a Guard *). sand-waves, sixty to two hundred cubits high, issued 

■ Prof. Rugge of Christiania, however, connects from the 'Garden of Eden.* It still hems in the 

Baldur with Achilles. We can hardly accept hb ten * Lost Tribes,* and is believed by the Druxes. 



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THE HARPE OF PERSEUS, 179 

to the Sidonians or to the gods. The eastern coast of the * Inner Sea ' was a 
centre of civilisation, a school of high culture which added beauty to necessary 
and useful technical products ; and its arts and handicrafts became patterns to 
the world, even to Egypt, the mother. We have only a few inscriptions to remind 
us of its literature ; but nothing can be more touching or more poetical 
than the epitaph of Eshmunazar, King of the Sidonians:* — 'Deprived of my 
fruit of life, my wise and valiant sons ; widowed, the child of solitude, I lie in this 
tomb, in this grave, in the place which I built,' &c. Phoenicia, too, gave not only 
her letters but her gods to Greece and Rome. Mulciber, for instance, was evi- 
dently Malik Kabir, the * Great King,' father of the Cabiri, the patron-saints of 
Palm-land and the Pelasgi ; this deity corresponded with the Egyptian Ptah, the 
Demiurgus-god denoted by the Scarabaeus, a symbol as common in Phoenicia as 
in Nile-land. Melkarth,' again, whom Nonnius makes the Babylonian Sun, was 
the city-god ; farther west he became Herakles, the Etruscan Erkle : the latter 
was an important commercial personage in Phoenicia, for his dog (according to the 
Greeks) discovered the murex. Melkarth is the Ourshol of Selden (* De Diis Syriis '), 
who derives the word from * Ur,' light' 

Another Syrian people, often occurring upon the Egyptian monuments, is the 
Shairetana, whom Layard supposes to be the Sharutinians near modem Antioch. 
They inhabited a country upon a river and a lake or sea. Their armour was a 
close-fitting cuirass of imbricated metal plates, worn over a short dress and girt at 
the waist ; the helmet had side horns, and its upper dome was surmounted by a 
shaft-and-ball crest. Their weapons were javelins, long spears, and pointed 
Swords. The Tokkari, their neighbours, also carried for offence spears and large 
pointed knives or straight Swords. The Rebo had bows and long straight Swords 
with very sharp points. The same is the case with Ru-tennu or Rot-n-n, who 
often pass in review upon the monuments. They appear to have contained 
two divisions : the Ru-tennu-hir (upper Ru-tennu) were apparently the peoples 
of Coelesyria, while the Ruthens or Luthens are mentioned in conjunction with 
Neniee (Nineveh), Shinar (Singar), Babel, and other places in Eastern Naharayn 
(Mesopotamia). 

We have no knowledge of the Phoenician Sword except that supplied to us by 
the legend of the enigmatical Egypto-Argive hero, Perseus. According to Hero- 
dotus (ii. 91), his quadrangular fane was at Panopolis-Chemmis in the Theban 
nome : here his sandal, two cubits long, was shown to devotees ; and the land 
prospered whenever he appeared, as is the case when it sees El-Khizr, the Green 
Prophet of El- Islam. The Greeks, whom we need not credit, made him the son 
of Jupiter by the * Acrisian maid ' (Danae) ; and the Persians,* according to the 

* I quote from Phctnician Inscriptions^ by the Rev. • Perhaps from the Egyptian Ur^ old, ancient, 

Dunbar I. Heath, not from the far more poetical ver- originaL 
sion of the Due de Luynes. 

« My friend Prof. Socin holds that St. Meklar of * The modem Persians, and, indeeJ, Persian his- 

Tyre conserves the cultus of Melkarth. tory and legend, know nothing of this wild legend. 

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i8o THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

Greeks, declared his son Perses to be the heros eponymus of their country, and the 
ancestor of their Hakhmanish or Achaemen»an kings. His chief exploits were 
two. At Spanish Tartessus or in Libya (Herod, ii. 91) he slew, with the aid of a 
' magic mirror * given to him by Neith- Athene, the gorgon Medusa, that old 
Typhonian head, from whose neck sprang Pegasus and Chrysaor.* At Phoenician 
Joppa (Jaffa)* he slaughtered the sea-monster (Krjros) and saved 'Andromeda,' 
who is suspiciously like * Anat' 

In both these feats Perseus used a celestial weapon, the Harpd of Cronos, which 
Zeus had wielded in his duel with Typhon. The giant or bad-god had torn it from 
the grip of the good-god, whom he presently imprisoned in a cave ; and it was not 
recovered till the captive was liberated by Thut-Hermes. The Greeks call this 
Sword '^Apinj (Harpd),' and the name is evidently the Phoenician Hereba and 
the Hebrew Chereb ; whilst its description, ipiiravov of u (/alx acuta, sharp sickle), 
identifies it with the Khopsh-blade of Egypt. Perseus performed his two exploits 
as Hercules slew the Lemaean hydra ; and Mercury cut off the head of Argus 
{falcato ense\ using the harpen Cyllenida} 

This legend has greatly ' exercised ' commentators. The hero is connected 
with lo, Belus, and iEgyptus ; while he is evidently related to the Cypriot Perseuth 
and the Phoenician Reseph* (flame or thunderbolt). The original fight is the 
eternal warfare of good, light, warmth, joy, with their contraries. It begins with 
Osiris-Typhon ; it proceeds to Assyria, where Bel the Sun-god attacks the Tiamat or 
marine monster with the Sapara-Sword or Khopsh. In Persia it becomes Hormuzd 
(Ahura-mazda) and Ahriman (Angra-manus) : in Jewry it is an affair between Bel 
and the Dragon ; in Greece between Apollo and Python. The duello is continued 
by St Patrick,^ who banished for ever snakes from Ireland ; and it makes its final 
appearance as * Saint George and the Dragon.' This expiring effort of Egyptian 
mythology is held apocryphal by the Roman Catholic Church, and no wonder. 

' A terra-cotta relief in the British Museum shows is now clean forgotten — at least, all my inquiries failed 

Chrysaor (Xfjwa^p) springing from Medusa's neck. to find it. The testimony is of the highest character ; 

* Joppa, according to tradition (Pliny, v, 14), was unfortunately it testifies to impossibilities— ail mon- 

built by Kepheus, king of the i^thiopians, and was sters are * contradictory beings.' The Ketos, whale 

his capital before *the Deluge.' The same author or shark {Canis Carcharias)^ is evidently the same 

tells us that Andromeda's chains were there shown, that swallowed Hercules and Jonah, 

and that the monster's skeleton (some fish cast • Mgr. Bianchini very improperly translates Harpi 

ashore upon the harbour reef?) was brought to by ' glaive,' and other writers absurdly use * scymi- 

Rome by the Curule /*)dile M. iCmil. Scaurus the tar.' They could hardly better describe what it was 

younger, who held office in Syria (ix. 4(. The bones #wA 

were upwards of forty feet long, the backbone one * The bronze Perseus of Benvenuto Cellini in the 

foot and a half thick, and the ribs higher than those Loggie dell' Orgagna of Florence holds a falx-Sword 

of the Indian elephant (a cachelot ?). Ajasson de- or falchion. 

dared that the remains should have been sent to * Hence possibly the town Arsiif ; and (the Isle of) 

those who show in their collections the weapon with Seripho, where Perseus was worshipped, 

which Cain slew Abel. Pausanias (second century) * There seem to be three of the name : Palladius, 

saw the Lydda streamlet red with blood, where Per- the first missionary to Ireland ; Sen Patrick, who 

sens had bathed after killing the *Ketos.' At Joppa studied under St. Germanus and died a.d. 458-61 ; 

St. Jerome was shown the traditional rock in which and Patrick M'Calphum, also a pupil of St. Ger- 

holes had been worn by Andromeda's fetters. The spot manus, who missionarised about a.d. 440-42. 



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PHCENICIAN SWORDS. i8i 

Dragons do not, and never did, exist, except in memory as prehistoric mon- 
sters ; moreover, the traveller in Syria is shown three several tombs of * M4r 
Jiryiis ' the Cappadocian, a saint who has spread himself from Diospolis-Lydda 
throughout the world. Under Justinian, the Theseum of Athens was dedicated 
to * Saint George of Cappadocia,' and in Cyprus he had as many temples as Venus. 
The Saxon teacher thus invoked him : 

Invicto mundum qui sanguine temnis, 
Infinita refers, Georgi Sancte, trophaea. 

He entered the English calendar when Henry H. married Eleanor, daughter of 
William of Aquitaine, the Crusader who chose the * flos Sanctorum ' for his patron 
saint. He is still godfather of the Garter, established by Edward HI. in 1350 ; 
and the most feudal of existing orders wears * the George * on a gold medallion, 
and celebrates its festival at Windsor on April 23. 

One step in the Saint's progress has been traced by M. Ch, Clermont-Ganneau,' 
an Orientalist whose archaeological acumen is unsurpassed even by his industry. 
A bas-relief group in the Louvre shows the hawk-headed Horus, mounted and in 
Roman uniform, piercing with his peculiar spear (an hamatum, or barb-head), the 
neck of the crocodile Typhon, Set, Dagon,* Python — the Devil. This strongly 
suggests that Horus and Perseus, Saint Patrick and Saint George, are one and the 
same person. 

The Hereba-blade has not yet been found in Phoenicia, but Wilkinson argues 
(H. ch. vii.) that the beautiful Swords and daggers, buried with the Ancient Britons 
and clearly not of Greek or Roman type, are Phoenician work. Carthaginian 
blades, however, dug up at Cannse are now in the British Museum.' That the 
nations were congeners we see by the Poenulus of Plautus, and by such names as 
Dido (another form of David) and Elissa (El-Isd ,the royal woman) ; by Sichaeus, who 
derives from the same root as Zacchaeus ; by Hannibal and Hasdrubal (containing the 
root Ba*al), and by the * Suffetes ' — magistrates who are the Hebrew Shophetim or 
Judges.* The mercenary armies of Carthage, whose conquests are first alluded to 
by Herodotus (vii. 165), used Swords of bronze, copper, and tin : Meyrick (i. 7) 
also mentions brass ; and the highly imaginative General Vallancey compares it 
with Dowris metal or * Irish brass.* Dr. Schliemann (* Mycenae,' p. 76) picked up, 
at * Motye in Sicily,' Carthaginian piles (arrow-heads) of bronze, pyramidal and 
without barbs (rfKto-xjiPBs or hamt) ; he found the same style at Mycenae (p. 123). 

* Horus et Saint^Ceorges^ &c See also a kind Swords of Ireland, according to the Encyclopedia 
of sentimental study aesthetically baptised ' Saint MetropoUlana, 

Mark's Kest : the Place of Dragons,* by J. R. Ander- ^ The ' tariflfof masses,' from the temple of Baal 

son. at Marseille, speaks of Chaltdbah the Sufet Other 

* From yy (dag\ a fish, a Ketos, the Phoenician inscriptions inform us that the Carthaginians had a 
}iai (Dajun, Diig<m)\ Dagan is the male, Dalas the triad, Baal Hammon (Ammon); the Lady Tanith 
female. Simply a tish-god. Sardanapa us was * he Pen Baal (Tanis or Neith, the rp6wwov^ or face, of 
who knows Anu (the god) and Dagon.' Baal), and lolaus. — PJuxfucioft Inscrijfiions^ by the 

' Others found at Cannu: resemble the copper Rev. D. I. Heath. 



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1 82 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

The Swords of the Lycians probably resembled the Egyptian Khopsh ; and 
the same was the case with the Cilician falchion. The latter peoples were also 
armed with the adpia-a-a (Sarissa) ; the lance or spear, sixteen to twenty feet 
long, afterwards used by the people of Epirus and the Macedonian phalanx. It 
is opposed to the Larissa, the lance of the European Middle Ages, and to the 
Narissa affected by the Norrenses. 

The most remarkable point concerning the Sword amongst the ancient Hebrews 
is our practical ignorance of its shape and size. Although shekels and similar 
remains have been discovered in fair quantities, that * iron race in iron clad,' the 
Jews of old, has not left us a single specimen of arms or armour. This is the 
more curious, .as we are expressly told that the blade was buried with its wielder.* 
And although we are assured (Gen. iv. 22) that Tubal-Gain, son of Lamech and 
Zillah, was the first metal-smith, there is no direct mention of iron arms amongst 
the Jews till after the Exodus. Gesenius proposes to make Tubal-Cain a hybrid 
word, * scoriarum faber,' from the Persian * Tupal ' (iron-slag or scoriae), and * KanI 
{fabeTy a blacksmith). He has been identified with Ptah, Bil-Kan (Assyria), Vulcan, 
and Mulciber ; and only ignorance of Hinduism prevented mediaeval commentators 
discovering him under the alias of Vishvamitra, the artificer of the Hindu gods. 
Maestro Vizani (A.D. 1588), a famous master of fence, attributes the invention of 
the Sword to Tubal-Cain ; we should now place this worthy in the later bronze 
and early iron age. Unjust claims to discovery are made by all ancient peoples ; 
and here it would be hardly fair to adduce Bochart's * Judaei semper mendaces ; in 
hoc argumento potissimum mentiuntur liberalissime.' 

It is, however, amply evident that the Phoenicians and the despised Canaanites were 
highly-cultivated peoples, whereas the Jews were not The latter are never alluded 
to in Egyptian hieroglyphs.* Even after they had established their principality 
upon the bleak and barren uplands of Judaea, they were dependent for their art 
upon their neighbours. Although gold was so abundant in the days of David that 
he could collect about one thousand million pounds (one hundred thousand talents 
of gold and one million of silver) for building the Temple, yet Solomon, the Wise 
King, was obliged to seek stone-cutters and even carpenters among the X&ovss 
iro\vBa{Ba\oL Judaea had neither science nor art ; architecture, sculpture, paint- 
ings nor mosaics ; comfort nor cookery. The Great Temple that succeeded the 
Tabernacle of Moses was mainly the work of Hiram of Tyre, the Siromus of Hero- 
dotus (v. 104), the Hiromus of Dius, Menander and Josephus (* Apion,' i. 17, &c.), 
and probably a dynastic name, as * Haram ' the Sacred. 

* Ezekiel (xxxii. 27). * And they shall not lie with * The Hebrews were probably included under the 

the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which * miserable foreigners,* who, at that time, numbered 

are gone down to hell [Sheol = Shuala, the ghost- about one-third of the Egyptian people. It was the 

land of Babylon] with their weapons of war : and they fashion to find * Hebrew ' in the *Aper, 'Apura, 

have laid their Swords under their heads, but their 'Aperiu, and 'Apiurui of the monuments ; but Brugsch 

iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were has shown that these were the original 'Erythraeans,* 

the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. ' equestrian Arabs of the barrens extending from Helio- 

polis onward to modem Suez. 



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THE JEWISH SWORD, 183 

Another learned master of arms * declares that the first weapon mentioned in 
Hebrew Holy Writ is the flammeus gladius wielded by the Cherubim (Gen. iii. 24), 
the * Chereb * which the Septuagint renders 'Pofi<f>aia,^ On the Assyrian monu- 
ments the Kerubi (* cherub/ which derives, like the Arabic * KarrCib/ from * Karb ' 
= propinquity) denotes the colossal figures symbolising the Powers of Good, and 
guarding the palace-gates. As they prevented the admission of Evil, they found 
their way to the entrance of the Garden of Eden, whence they warned off sinners 
and intruders. The * flaming Sword,' which * turned every way to keep the way of 
the tree of life,' was, according to some, the two-pronged blade, the Greek * cheli- 
donian,' which served as a talisman. Tiglath Pileser I. made one of these forked 
Swords of copper, inscribed it with his victories, and placed it as a trophy in one of 
his castles. But the Genesitic Sword is probably the weapon-symbol of Merodach, 
the Babylonian god and planet Jupiter. This revolving disc represented, like the 
Aryan * Vajra,' the lightning or * thunderbolt ' with which our classics armed Zeus- 
Jovi ;• and a highly poetical description of it is given in an old Akkadian hymn. 
Here it is called among other names ////« (or ///«), which is, letter for letter, the 
same as the first of the Hebrew words translated * flaming Sword ' (/a/ia( ha- 
Chereb) : it may also signify the * Burning of Desolation.* M. F. Lenormant ^ sug- 
gests that the true meaning is * magical prodigy.' But it is safer to stand by the 
disc-like Sword, which corresponds with the wheels of Ezekiel's vision (chap. x. 
9, 10). In the Chaldaean battle of Bel and the Dragon we again find the great 
flaming Sword, turning all round the circle when wielded by the deity against the 
• Drake.' So the Egyptians had long before depicted the solar god with a glory 
of solar rays, a most appropriate symbol ; and his enemy, Apophis j^ iXXK. 
the serpent of Genesis, whom he destroys, is a monstrous reptile bristling with a 
dorsal line of four Sword-blades, like flesh-knives, typifying destruction. 

The Hebrews borrowed their metallurgy, like all their early science, from 
Egypt. M. de Goguet remarked that they were not destitute of technological 
skill if they could calcine the golden calf and reduce the metal (probably by using 
natron) to a powder which could be drunk in water — auruni potabile. 

The Hebrews called the Sword * Chereb ' (n^wi, pi. Chereboth), a word that 
occurs some two hundred and fifty times in the * Old Testament' Its root, like the 
Arabic * khrb,' means to waste, to be wasted ; and the noun denotes any wasting 
matter.** Mostly it means a Sword (Gen. xvii. 40 ; xxxiv. 25, &c. &c.) ; in other 

» Traitato di ScJurma^ &c. di Alberto Marchionni from the * Semitic' root T\\ Jah ( Yah)^ carried west- 
(Fircnze : Bencini, 1547). ward by the Phoenicians? But this is 'stirring the 

« 'Ti.- J Ml 1- .• t . t . . , fire with a Sword,* against which Pythagoras warns us. 

« This word will be noticed in chapter xu I j .r tt- j i»u- * • j. iTi t>ui » 

,,„ .i^t ., ^,.. * Les Figures de IHistoire d apres la Bible,' &c. 

cannot wholly agree Mith Colonel Lane- Fox M«/^n?A ,,, .,. i? u ,. ,oo^x « t «k-* » /.u /• 

r^ n ^vui. t r..^, \ r. , (the^/A^iKW<w, Feb. 31, 1880). * Lahat (the Germ. 

C(0//. p. 99) when he speaks of a * eaf-shaped Sword- ;. ., , i, »/••.. .v • 1 

, , J r/ V J . .1- J i- . ,., , iohe. our Mow' or Mowe') is m the singular a 

blade attached to the end of the spear, hke the ,« , • *v 1 1 * n u . . i. 

-,. . ^, j.^ i^,%;m^ 4 flame*; m the plural 'spells, enchantments by 

Thracian romphta and the European partisan ^^ j » & 

* Mr. Gerald Massey would identify the Jewish 
' May not this older form of Jupiter have derived" Chereb, like the Phurnician llereba and the Gree 



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1 84 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

places it is a knife (Josh. v. 2, 3). So we find in Ezekiel (v. i), 'Take thee a 
sharp knife [Chereb] ; take thee a barber's razor ' : elsewhere it becomes a chisel 
(Exod. XX. 25) ; an axe or pick (Jen xxxiv. 4 ; Ez. v. i, and xxvi. 9), and, 
finally, violent heat (Job xxx. 30). The Arabic * Harbah * signifies a dart 

We gather from the Hebrew writings that the Sword was originally of copper: 
hence the allusion to its brightness and its glittering : this would be followed by 
bronze, and lastly by iron, ground upon the whetstone (Deut xxxii. 41). It v:as 
not of flint ; the * sharp knives ' alluded to in Joshua (v. 2), were mere silex-flakes 
like the Egj^ptian. The Sword was used by foot-soldiers and horsemen, the latter 
adding to the * light Sword ' a * glittering spear ' (Nahum iii. 3). The ' Chereb * was 
not a large or heavy weapon, and we may safely assume that its forms were those 
of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. The weight of Goliath's Sword is unfortunately not 
given (i Sam. xvii. 45), like that of his spear and his armour; nor are we told 
anything about the blade which David refused because he had not proved it {ibid. 
39). But the ease with which the son of Jesse drew out of the sheath thereof 
and used the Philistine's * Chereb,* suggests a normal size and weight {ibid, 51 
and xxi. 9). It was much admired, for the victor said, * There is none like that * 
(i Sam. xxi. 9). From the same chapter and verse we learn that the blade was 
* wrapped up in a cloth,' still an Eastern practice, * behind the ephod ' or priest's 
robe.* And the fact of a man falling upon his Sword (i Sam. xxxi. 4, 5) shows 
that the blade was stiff, short, and straight, like the Egyptian leaf-blade. Ehud 
the Benjamite, when about to murder Eglon, King of Moab (Jud. iii. 16), * made 
a two-edged Sword-dagger of a cubit length* (or eighteen inches), apparently 
without a sheath. The frequent mention of the double-edged Sword (or straight 
cut-and-thrust ?) suggests that there were also single-edged blades, back-Swords or, 
perhaps, falchions. It is hard to understand why Meyrick tells us that the Jews 
wore the Sword 'suspended in front, in the Asiatic style.* Ehud {ibid. 16,21) 
girt his weapon under his raiment upon his right thigh, and drew it with his left 
hand. Again, we read, * Gird thy sword upon thy thigh ' (Ps. xlv. 3) ; and as Joab 
proceeded to assassinate Amasa (2 Sam. xx. 8), the * garment that he had put on 
was girded unto him, and upon it a girdle with a sword fastened upon his loins in 
the sheath thereof ; and as he went forth it fell out.* The allusions to the oppress- 
ing Sword (Jer. xlvi. 16 ; 1. 25) recall the Assyrian emblem of the Sword and the 
Dove, which are both figured in one image. Perhaps we must so understand the 
Egyptian Ritual of the Dead : * I came forth as his child from his Sword.' Appa- 
rently the Chereb was worn, as by the civilised Greeks and Romans, only on 
emergencies and not, like the chivalry of Europe, habitually in peaceful towns. 

Harp^, with the Egyptian Kherp, • ■ ,, the became a Sword -the reaper of men. This is in- 

^^^ ^ — ' genioos, but nothing more : the white ann in £g]rpt 

sign of majesty typified by an oar or rather paddle— g^^^ ^^ ^^ ^f derivation from the oar. 

^ I \. Thus the Kherp first cut the water like a , g^ j^^^ ^,^^^.^ gword was taken from a 

propeller, then the grain as a sickle, and at last it church, as will appear in Part II. 



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THE JEWISH SWORD. 185 

The Cultellarii or Sicarii, whom Josephus and Tacitus^ mention, were mere assas- 
sins, like the French Coustilliers and the English Coustrils or Custrils. 

That the Hebrews were not first-rate Swordcutlers, we may infer from the 
history of Judas the Maccabee.* A vision of Jeremiah the Prophet, preceding 
the victory over Nicanor, had promised him * a Sword of God, a holy Sword,* 
not the short Machaera but the large Rhomphaea (2 Mac. xv. 15). After his 
war with the Samaritans and the Gentiles of Palestine, * Judas took the Sword 
of Apollonius (the Syrian general) and fought with it all his life' (2 Mac. 
iii. 12). 

And yet how general was the use of the Sword in Jewry we gather from the 
fact that it assisted in taking the Census : so David, by one account (2 Sam. 
xxiv. 9) mustered one million three hundred thousand * valiant men that drew the 
Sword.** The expression 'girding on the Sword *(i Sam. xxv. 13) denoted 
adults able to serve as soldiers, and also noted the beginning of a campaign (Deut. 
1. 41). It has been stated that Saul, son of Kish, used the Sword with his left 
hand, by virtue of being of the tribe of Benjamin. Of the latter, however, we 
learn (Judg. xx. 16) that many were ambidexters, fighting and slinging with the 
left as well as with the right Finally, to be * slain by the Sword * was evidently 
as great a misfortune as the * straw-death * among those muscular Christians, the 
Scandinavians. The curse of David upon Joab was that there might never be 
wanting in his house * one that hath an issue, or is a leper, or that leaneth on a 
staff, or that falleth on the Sword * (a suicide). All this makes the fact the more 
singular that no Jewish Sword-blade has ever been found. 

Of the weapons used by the tribes neighbouring the ancient Hebrews we know 
little. In the famous muster of Xerxes* army,* the Assyrians, according to Hero- 
dotus (vii. 65), used hand-daggers (iyxsiplBia) resembling the Egyptian. The 
Arabs (vii. dg^ 86), like the Indians, were mere savages armed with bows and 
arrows ; and we may note that the former^mounted only camels, the horse not 
having been naturalised amongst all the tribes in the days of the ' Great King ' 
(B.C. 485-465). The Philistine * weapons are known to us only by the famous 
duello between David and Goliath of Gath (i Sam. xvii.). The account is full of 
difficulties for the * reconciler * of contradictory texts ; for instance, David is Saul's 

» Tadlus {Ifist. v. 13) calls them a "band of • The number is given in Chronicles (i, xxi. 5) 

murderers.' The ominous word ' Sicarius * first occurs at one million five hundred and seventy thousand 

in Jewish history during Josephus* lime (Be//, Jud, without including Levi and Benjamin. Many attempts 

iv. 7; viL 11). St. Paul was charged by Lysias have been made to reconcile the little difference of 

with heading four thousand Sicarii, who at great two hundred and seventy thousand souls, 

feasts murdered their victims with concealed ^aggers. * I shall notice Assyrian Arms in chap. x. 

Also forty Sicarii bound themselves by the Cherem- * By a curious feat of etymology, this word, or 

oath (the original * Boycotting *) to slay Paul. The rather the German * Philister * (confounded with 

Sica or Sicca will be noticed in another chapter. Ba/cstarius or Ba/estaus^ a.crossbow>man, the militia 

* The Machabsean epoch is interesting, because of small artisans?) has come to signify in modem 

during it the idea of a ' resurrection * was established. parlance one indifferent to ' intellectual interest ' and 

The word should be written * Makabi * if derived from the ' higher culture.' As applied to the enemy it is 

Mi Kamo Ka Baalim Yahveh (Ex. xv. 11). simply Prig writ large. 



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1 86 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



armour-bearer, and yet unknown at Court' Nor is it easy to discover where Gath 
is. It is popularly identified with Kharbat (ruins of) Gat : this heap of ruins lies 
west of castled Bayt Jibr/n, the * House of Giants ' (tyrants), the Arabic name cor- 
responding with the Hebrew Bethogabra. The field of fight has been found in the 
Wady El-Samt (Elah of St Jerome), west of Jerusalem. The people of this part of 
Palestine, probably descended from the Hyksos or Canaanites, are a fine tall race, 
bred to fray and foray by the neighbourhood of predatory Bedawin : * armed to 
the teeth, they are adepts in the use of the huge * nebiit ' or quarterstaff. 

The plain of Philistia, which once supported five princely citres, appears very 
barren viewed from the sea ; but the interior shows well-watered valleys, and the 
succession of ruins proves that the country belonged to an energetic and indus- 
trious race. Gaza ('Azzah), at the southern extremity, was a place of considerable 
importance, on account of its fine port and its trade with the adjacent Bedawin. 
It must not be confused with modem Ghazzah.' 

Goliath, the * champion of the uncircumcised ' (Philistines), and possibly a type 
of the race, wore armour * of * brass ' (copper) ; unfortunately the materials of his 
Sword and sheath are not specified. 

Leaving Syria, we proceed to Cyprus, which may be considered an outlying 
part of Palestine. Its size, its position between the east and the west, and its 
wealth in gold, silver, copper, and iron, made it an important station for the early 
Pelasgo-Hellenic or Graeco-Italic race which passed westwards, using the Helles- 
pont and the Bosphorus for ferry-places, and the iEgean Islands for stepping- 
stones. Thus Cyprus became the * cradle of Greek culture, the cauldron in which 
Asiatic, Egyptian, and Greek ingredients were brewed together.' General Palma 



' Thi Old Testament in the Jewish Churchy 
p. 126, by the Rev. W. Robertson Smith (Blacks, 
Edinburgh, 1S81). 

* Napoleon Buonaparte was right in attributing 
the instability of the great empires (Egypt, Babylon, 
Assyria) bordered by the Bedawin, to the destructive 
action of the Arab race : * That most mischievous 
nation whom it is never desirable to have either for 
friends or enemies' (Ammian. Marcell. xiv. 4). I 
have enlarged upon this subject in Unexplored Syria 
(i. 210). The first noted outswarming was of the 
Hyksos or Shepherd-Kings (B.C. 1480 to 1530?). 
Another, under the influence of M^^hammed the 
Apostle of Allah, changed the condition of the Old 
World ; and in the present day, Turkish dominion 
in the r^ons frontiered by Arabia is being seriously 
threatened. Hence Ibn KhaldCm of Tunis, who in 
A.D. 1332 began to write philosophical history, assigns 
to empire in the East three generations ( « 120 years) 
and three several steps. The first, youth, is of 
growth (campaigning and annexing); the religion 
being fanaticism and the form of government a limited 
monarchy of a semi-republican type. The second, 
manhood, is a period of * rest and be thankful,' of not 
•stirring up things quiet'; of enjoyment, of easy 



scepticism, of luxury, of despotism. The third, age, 
is decline and fall, the triumph of financiers and 
capitalists ; of aversion from war and from * territorial 
aggrandisement ' ; it is distinguished by employing mer- 
cenaries, by religious disbelief, by tyrannic rule. {^Ibn 
Ckaldun und seine CulturgeschichU^ Baron A. von 
Kremer. Wien.) 

' This has apparently been done by the Rev. Mr. 
Porter, the author of that unpraiseworthy Murray s 
Handbook, His Strabo had told him that Gaza lay 
seven stadia or furlongs from the sea ; and St. Jerome 
that a new town had been built. Yet we are led 
three miles from the shore to modem Ghazzah, and 
are gravely told of Moslem absurdities concerning the 
Makim or tomb of Samson. The old port of which 
the Ancients speak has evidently been buried by the 
sands which are attacking Bayrdt, and the only sur- 
vivor of the past may be the site of Shaykh Ijlin on 
the coast, south of the Minat or present roads. In 
noticmg Askelon, Mr. Porter tells us all about the 
old story of Ascalonia, Scallion, Shalot : nothing 
about the Egyptian Ac-qa-li-na. For a third edition 
the learned author should take the trouble to consult 
Brugsch Pasha's Egypto-Syrian studies. 

* See chap. iv. 



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THE CYPRUS SWORD. 187 

(di Cesnola) * has proved, by his invalaable finds, which have ' added a new and 
very important chapter to the history of art and archaeology,' that early Cypriote 
art was essentially Egyptian, modified by Phoenician and Assyrian influences, and 
eventually becoming Greek. Hence, too, with the dawn of Hellenic civilisation, 
migrated westwards some of the fairest classical myths. Cyprus was the very 
birthplace of Venus,' an anthropomorphism which rendered infinite service to 
poetry, painting, and sculpture. Idalium (Dali) was the capital of Cinyras, 
Kinndri the harper,* the Croesus of his day ; it was the site of Myrrha's sin and the 
death-place of her son Adonis. The latter, who corresponds with the Tammuz of 
Palestine and the Assyrian Du-zi (Son of Life), is made by Ammianus Marcellinus 
(xxii. 14) an 'emblem of the fruits of the earth cut down in their prime.' Here 
was the atelier of Pygmalion, Fa*am Aliyun {Malleus Deorum\ the hammer of the 
gods ; * and here upon his breathing statue of ivory he begat Paphos, the king. 
Finally, here flourished the poets who preceded the Homerid chief ; and here was 
born Zeno, the Stoic, the * Phoenician.' 

The history of Cyprus begins soon after the beginning. An inscription of Thut- 
mes HI. speaks of the * false breed of the Kittim * ; and the island is everywhere 
on the monuments called Asibi. In the cuneiforms the word is ' Kittie ' : we also 
find ' Atndn * : hence, possibly, the Hellenic ' Akamantis.' It is the * Chittim * of 
the Hebrews (Joseph. * A. J.' i. 7), and perhaps their * Caphtor ' ; the latter word, how- 
ever, appears to be the Egyptian * Kefa ' or * Kefl ' (a palm or Phoenicia), converted 
into the son of Javan and grandson of Japhet * Kittim ' and its congeners sur- 
vive in the Greek Citium, now Larnaca, from * lamax,' a mummy-case, a coflSn. 
I have already noticed (chap, iv.) the disputed origin of * Kypros ' and * Cyprus.' 

The Autochthones of Cyprus are supposed upon very slight grounds to have 
been 'Aryans' from Asia Minor, Phrygians,* Lycians,* Lydians, or Cilicians. 

' Cfprms^ befisce quoted. is a modiHcation by the Persian Sih-tirah or ' the 

* Aphrodite or Venus (Urania and Pandemos, three-stringed.* 

Pom^ and Hetaera), at once the feminine principle in * Thus in Jeremiah (xxiii. 29), < Is not my word 
nature, the original mother and the idea of womanly like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer 
beauty, was a universal personage. In Egypt she that breaketh the rock in pieces ? ' 
was Athor the Goddess of Pleasure, and Ashtar in * I see with pleasure that Mr. W. P. Palmer pro- 
Nilotic Mendes. Amongst the Arabs she became poses to continue his exploration of Phrygia; his 
Beltis, Baaltisthe feminine of Bel or Ba*al, and Alitta lecture before the Hellenic Society (Dec. 14, 1882) 
( Al-ilat the goddess) ; among the Sidonians Ashtoreth promises much. The western half of the great 
(I Kings xi. 33); in Phoenicia, Ishtar and Astarte, western plateau of Asia Minor, this land of mono- 
which Gesenius takes to be a Semitisation of the tonous grandeur, is directly connected with the 
Persian Sit^eh, a star (f>. Venus); in Byblos, ^Egean Sea by a single line of cleavage which extends 
Dionaea and Dione ; in other parts of Syria, Derceto, from Miletus to Celsmse. Egyptian art and influence 
Atergatis (Ta-ur-t, Thoueris), and Nani, the latter found its way to Greece t^ Phrygia as well as through 
still surviving in the Bibi Nani (Lady Venus) of Phoenicia, especially in the early days of the Argo- 
Afghanistan. In Cyprus she was Anat, Tanat, or nauts and the Iliads^ when Greece began to be con- 
Tanith (Ta-neith » Athene ?) ; in Persia and Armenia nected with nearer Asia. Hence the wide diffusion 
Mitra (Herod, i. 131), Tanata, and Anaitis = Anahid, of the Midas-myth (B.C. 670) : the long-eared king*s 
the planet Venus ; and in Carthage, Tanit Pen Baal. tomb was discovered in i8oa I have elsewhere 

• In Heb. Kinniir, a lyre of six to nine strings noticed how far Phrygia extended to the West, leaving 
resembling the Nubian auticle. Hence, probably, indelible marks in Spain and Portugal. 

NiOiipa, Cithara, Chitarra, Guitar, Zither ; but there * The Lycian tongue, as far as we know, resem- 



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1 88 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

There must have been an early * Semitic * innervation, as we see by such names as 
Amathus ; this is the Greek form of Hamath, the * high town/ typically explained 
by the Hebrew * Amath/ grandson of Canaan. The Phoenicians settled chiefly in 
the south of the island and made it an outpost of Tyre and Sidon. Herodotus 
tells us that there were also, according to their own account, Ethiopians (vii. 90), 
by which he means Cushito- Asiatic tribes from the head of the Persian Gulf. 

The staple of Cyprus, from the heroic ages to the Roman days, was the copper- 
trade and the manufacture of arms and armour. To the legendary Tyrio-Cyprian 
king Cinyras was attributed the invention of the hammer, anvil, tongs, and other 
metallurgic tools. This favourite of Venus was only the hero eponymus of the 
Phoenician Cinyradaj, who ruled the isle till subdued by Ptolemy Lagi (b.c. 3 1 2). 
They were opposed to a Semitico-Cilician family of priests and prophets, the 
Tamyridae. Homer (* II.' xi. 19) describes the breast-plate of worked and dama- 
scened steel (? Kvavos) adorned with gold and tin, which King Cinyras sent to 
Agamemnon. Alexander the Great highly prized, for its lightness and temper, 
the blade given to him by the King of Citium ; and we know that he used it in 
battle, slaying *with his Cyprian Sword' Rhaesales the Persian. Demetrius 
Poliorcetes wore a suit of armour from Cyprus, which had been tested by darts 
shot from an engine distant only twenty paces. In Herodotus (vii. 90) the 
Cyprian contingent of Xerxes' army was weaponed after the manner of the 
Greeks. 

Cyprus would derive her art from the Phoenicians, whose bronze dishes were 
found in the Palace-cellars at Nineveh. Gem-engraving, and working in pietra 
dura, were highly cultivated, as is proved by General Palma's works, and by the 
Lawrence-Cesnola collection, * Album of Cyprus Antiquities.' * Glass- and crystal- 
cutting were well known at a time when Herodotus (ii. 69) could describe the 
former only as * fusible stone ' — perhaps, however, alluding to paste gems. But 
Theophrastus, a century and a half after the historian, mentions glass as reported 
to be made by melting a certain stone. I have already alluded to the peculiar 
decency and decorum of the glyptic remains in the Isle of Venus, where the fes- 
tivals were described as being ultra-Canopic in character.* 

The * finds ' of Cyprian weapons have little importance ; perhaps due care was 
not devoted to the subject Dali (Idalium) produced a fine dagger.with an open 
ring for ornament between handle and blade, together with a hatchet and spear- 
head in copper. Here also was found the bronze tablet of the Due de Luynes, the 

bles Zend ; and the coin with a triquetra (Rawlinson's > Major di Cesnola On Phanician Art in Cyprtu : 

Herod, i. 212) has three characters apparently Hit- the proofs are *gold and silver ornaments of remark- 

tite. The Lycian confederacy of twenty-three towns able beauty and grace,* which are said to resemble 

(six cities being chief) was strong enough to resist the produce of Hissarlik. 
Croesus (Herodotus^ Their relationship was by the 

< distaff-side ' {^MutUrrecht)^ as opposed to the ' Sword- ' The Cyprian Venus was worshipped in the 

side*; and we find traces of the same antique and form of an Umbilicus or Meta, according to Ser- 

logical practice among the Greeks : &8f A^i is evi- vius (ad y£if. i. 724). Others compare it with a 

denily derived from Z^K^in, pyramid. 



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CYPRUS WEAPONS. 



189 



discoverer of the Cypriote syllabary/ which has caused, and still causes, so much 
discussion. Alambra yielded a number of copper tools, needles, bowls, mirrors, 
hatchets, spear-heads, and daggers (Cesnola, PI. V.). Among j 

them is a sickle-shaped implement (a\ of the shape called a 
'razor' by writers on Etruscanism ; it may be anything between 



J: 




Fig. 196.- (Plate V.) 

NOVACULA. 



a razor, a sickle, and a pruning-hook.* A tomb at Amathus 
supplied copper axes and iron arrow-heads (p. 280), and another 
an iron dagger (p. 276). There is a charming dagger from the 
Curium treasure (PI. XXI. p. 312) ; and we are told (p. 335) of * an 





v^' 



Fic. 197— {Prague Museum.) 

NoVACULA f 



Fig. 198.— (Klagenfurth Museum.) 

NoVACt'LA, SiCKLBf RaZOR f 



Fig. 199.- Silver 
Daccbk. 



iron dagger with part of its ivory handle.' The straight blade, the flesh-chopper, and 
the leaf-shaped Egyptian Swords are found on a patera' (p. 329), and the broken 



' Numismatique et Inscriptions Cyptiota^ Paris, 
1832. The Dali inscription is compared with the 
Lycian at the end of vol. i. pt I, Soc. of Bibl, ArchaoL 
1872. Discussing the eighty characters, the Due de 
Luynes found twen»y-seven Egyptian, twelve Lycian, 
and seven Phoenician. This would suggest that the 
syllabary is a branch of the picture-writing which grew 
to be an alphabet proper in the Nile Valley, and which, 
modified by the Phoenicians, passed into Greece. 
Others hold it to be an imperfect modification of the 
Asftyrian cuneiforms, introduced about B.c. 700 and 
lasting till Alexander's day. I have already noticed 
that the cuneiforms were originally pictures of natural 
objects ; and that the same is evidently the case with 
the Chinese syllabary. Some of the Cypriot signs 
show a faint resemblance to the Devanagari alphabet, 
which we know to be a modem offshoot from South 
Arabian or llimyaritic. A gold incision from the 



Curium treasury (Plate xxxiv. No. 7) consists of two 
crescents adossed, which may be either Hittite or a 
simple ornament. Mr. Sayce, indeed, derives the 
syllabary from Khita-land. Of the crescent and the 
star I have already spoken; no date can be assigned 
to it in decorative art. 

* I have figured a similar but broader blade as 
the Novacula in Etruscan Bologna^ p. 66. The 
Prague Museum has about a dozen of these sickles 
found near Tepl: one [b) with a rivet-hole and a 
kind of beading. In the collection of Carinthian 
Klagenfurth I found a sickle (r, No. 171 1) fifteen 
and a half cent, long by four broad, with an Etruscan 

inscription MO^A^^^- See Chap. X. 

• The winged Sphinxes upon this patera with 
hawks' heads are peculiarly Eg>'ptian. The Sphinx, 
which may be older than the Pyramids, is a man- 



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I90 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

statue of a warrior from Golgoi carries a falchion or flesh-chopper slung under the 
quiver to the left side (p. 155). The tombs containing horsemen in terra-cotta 
invariably yielded one or two spear-heads seven to ten inches long, whilst the 
figures of foot-soldiers were accompanied by a battle-axe, knife, or dagger. The 
decapitation of the Gorgon by Perseus adorns a sarcophagus also found at Golgoi 
(PL X.) ; and the head of Medusa (PL XXII.) apparently suggested that of the 
Hindu Kali, with the tongue lolling out as if goi^ed with gore. The mediaeval 
finds of arms seem to have been more important than the ancient There is a 
tempting notice, but only a notice, of the Venetian weapons taken from the two 
casements of Famagosta, of old Amta-Khadasta,* the Ammochostos of Ptolemy 
(v. 14, § 3) : especially interesting are the rapiers, whose handles bore the Jeru- 
salem Cross and the owners* crests inlaid with gold. 

On the mainland north of Cyprus lies a most remarkable land which, forming 
a point of junction, a connecting-link between the East and the West, was one of 
the tracks of primitive emigration from Asia to Europe, and vice versd. This tite 
de ponty commanding the island-bridge and the various stepping-stones of rock, 
is the famous Troas, occupied of old by a branch of the great Phrygian race. 
Hence the interest attaching to the excavations of Dr. Henry Schliemann. His 
works are too well known to require any detailed notice of the five (seven ?) cities 
* whose successive layers of ruins, still marked by the fires that passed over them, 
are piled to the height of fifty (two and a half) feet above the old summit of the 
Hisdrlik hill.' ' The explorer s labours, according to his editor, have passed through 
the * several stages of uncritical acceptance, hypercritical rejection, and discrimi- 
nating belief* : I can only remark that the question of Troy appears farther from 
being settled (if possible) than it ever was ; we now know only where it was not. 
The excavator began by placing his city of Priam in the second stratum from 
below, at a depth of twenty-three to thirty-three feet under the surface ; and after- 
wards raised it to the third layer. It is regretable that the learned author did not 
submit his lively volume * Troy * to a professed archaeologist We should not have 
heard so much about the Svasti, a Hittite ornament, nor should we have been told 
that the Trojans used * salt-cellars or pepper-boxes * (p. 79) ; that the Ramayana 
Epic was * composed at the latest eight hundred years before Christ * (p. 103), 

and that the * ivory, peacocks, and apes are Sanskrit words with scarcely any 

• 

headed lion — the ' union of force and intellect.' Later the Elgyptians threw into the face of the Sphinx haye 
types change the human head to that of an asp, a ram, only to study the statue standing to the proper left of 
and a hawk ; and supply the latter with wings. The the main entrance to Shepheard's Hotel, Cairo. It 
same is the case with the Sphinx of Troy and Assyria : came, I believe, from the great Dromos of the Sera- 
it is mostly alate. The Grecian Sphinx changed the peum, the Apis- tombs of the marvellous Memphis 
bearded human head to that of a woman ; the Gyno- cemetery. 

Sphinx in Egypt being later than the Andro-Sphinx. * Meaning Holy Lady or Great Goddess, the 

We find the female in the doorway oftheXanthus frieze Syria Dea. Preceded by the digamma, the word 

and over the sarcophagus at Amathus {Cyprus^ pp. became Famagosta, and was corrupted to Fama 

264-267). Those who would understand the pecu- Augusli and to Ammochosti, a sand-heap, 
liar beauty, not only of line but of expression, which » See his diagram, p. 10, Trov and Us Remains, 



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TROJAN WEAPONS. 



191 



alteration.' * When, therefore, I speak of * Troy proper,' and ' Trojan stratum,' 
I mean only Dr. Schliemann's Troy. 

The townlet had preserved, at the time of its destruction, the technological use of 
stone, which, indeed, was found in the four lower strata, and even in the Acropolis 
of Athens. It occurs, however, in conjunction with gold and silver, copper, bronze, 
and traces of iron, but no tin.* The people were, like most barbarians, very expert 
metallurgists ; and if Dr. Schliemann's diorite be true diorite,' they must have 
worked with highly-tempered tools. Copper, either pure or slightly alloyed, was 
the most common metal : we read of a key, a large double-edged axe, a vase- 
foot, nails, clothes-pins {ifi^o\a\ a curious instrument like a horse's bit (p. 261) ; 
a bar, a big ring, a chauldron QJfirjs)^ a ridge (<f>aKo9) for the helmet-crest 
(\6(}>09\ two whole helmets, three crooked knives, and a lance with a mid- rib 
(p. 279). Upon the so-called * great Tower of Ilios ** was found a large mould of 
mica-schist for casting twelve different articles, axes and daggers. Thus we learn 
something about the long copper knives which the Homeric heroes carry besides 
their Swords and use in sacrifice : also we may now reasonably conclude that the 
Iliad-poets could not, as has often been asserted, have ignored the fusion and the 
casting of metals.* Near this important mould appeared a fine lance (p. 279), and 
long thin bars, either with heads or with the ends bent round, determined to be 
hair- or breast-pins. Iron showed only in a sling-bullet, although Dr. Schliemann 
often mentions * loadstone.' ® 

The * upper Trojan stratum * yielded other moulds for bar-casting and a four- 
footed crucible, in which some copper was still visible. The gates supposed to be 
the Scaean or left-handed ^ had two copper bolts (p. 302). The so-called * Palace 



' Sec chapter viii. These assertions are fair 
specimens of the harm done to philology, in uncriticai 
England, by the one-sided and ad captandum views 
of the « Sanskritists.* Mr. Gerald Massey hardly 
exaggerates when he says (i. 135), * It looks as if 
the discovery of Sanskrit were doomed to be a fatal 
find for the philologists of our generation.' The 
peculiar mixture of philology, in its specialist form, 
with the science of religion and the tenebrae of meta- 
physics has, it appears to me, done much harm to 
all three ; but it delighted the half-educated public. 
It met with scant appreciation in acute France and 
in critical Germany, where the editing, or rather muti- 
lation, of texts, has been severely chastised. But the 
Sanskritist, much to the discredit of Oriental studies 
and of philology in Ecgland, has given us an indiges- 
tion of Sanskritism ; during the last great Oriental 
Congress in London he almost monopolised time and 
attention, to the prejudice of Orientalism in general 
Apparently a protest is on the point of being raised ; 
but, unhappily, Teutonism is still a scourge in Great 
Britain, and the typical Solar myth, Mike Hermann's 
a German.' 

* Except, of course, in the bronze. 

• Charles Rau (?), an American, by means of a 



bow, anfl without using metal, bored a hole through an 
axe of diorite : it occupied him ten hours a day for 
four months (Jahns, p. 6). 

* In mediaeval Romance 'Ilios,' *Ilion,' and 
* Ilium ' were applied to the Palace of Priam. 

» Juvenius Mundi^ by the Right Hon. W. E. 
Gladstone, p. 529. 

* May it not be the black haematite used in 
C3rprus ? Compare the goose's head, the sacred bas- 
ket, and the frog, Egyptian symbol of embryonic 
man and of Hor- Apollo (Harpocrates), in General 
Palma (Appendix, p. 364). But is this able writer sure 
about his ' haematite ' ? 

' I.e. to one looking north and therefore west. 
The old Egyptians faced to the south (Hin or Khount), 
which they called 'upwards * or 'forwards,' in oppo- 
sition to the North, which was the lower (Khir) or 
hinder part (Pehu). Thus their right was west 
(Unim) and their left east (Semah) : the right leg of 
Osiris was the western side of the Delta. So Pliny 
(ii. 6) makes his observer front southwards. The 
Assyrian and Semites faced east (Kadam or front, 
opposed to Akhir or Shalam, the sun's frj/i«^-place) : 
hence their right (Yemen) was the south, and their 
left (Sham) was north. They introduced this fashion 



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192 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



of Priam ' * produced a dozen long thin pins for hair or dress ; and one of a bundle 
of five, fused together by fire, had two separate heads, the upper lentil-shaped, and 
the lower perfectly round (p. 312). Thick nails, fitted for driving into wood, were 
rare ; the labour of two years produced only two. Finally, there 
were fragments of a Sword, a lance, and other instruments. 

The first article found in the so-called * Treasury of Priam ' was 
a copper shield {a^nrXs o/i^aXoWcra), an oval salver measuring in 
diameter less than twenty inches. The flat field is surrounded by 
a rim (avrv^) an inch and a half high ; the umbo (6fi<l>a\69) * 
measured two and one-third by four and one-third across, and this 
boss was bounded by a furrow (av\a^) two-fifths of an inch across 
(p. 324). Thus Antyx and Aulax, suited for mounting a guard of 
hide, recall Ajax's seven-fold shield, made by Tychius ' (* IL* vii. 
219-223); and Sarpedon's targe, with its round plate of ham- 
mered * Chalcos,' and its hide-covering attached to the inner edge of 
the rim by gold wires or rivets (* II.' xii. 294-97). Near the left hand 
of a Lebes-chauldron, two fragments of a lance and a battle-axe 
were firmly attached by fusion. There were thirteen copper lances, 
from nearly seven inches to upwards of a foot long, with one and 
a half to two and one-third inches of maximum breadth ; the shafts 
had pin-holes for attachment to the handle ; the Greeks and Romans 
inserted the wood into the neck of the metal-head of the lance. There 
was a common one-edged knife six inches long ; and of seven two- 
edged daggers, the largest measured ten and two-thirds by two 
inches. The grips averaged two to two and three-quarter inches, 
and the tang-ends, where the pommels should be, were bent round 
at a right angle. Doubtless the tang had been encased in a wooden haft ; had 
it been of bone some trace would have remained, and the point, which projected 
about half an inch, was simply turned to keep the handle in place. This anti- 



FiG. aoo.— Copper 
Sword with 

SHAKPBND,FROM 

THB ' Treasury 
or Priam.' 



into Ancient India, where, consequently, Dakshina 
{d'X/ra, the light hand) became the south, and sur- 
vives in our * Deccan.* The practice even extended 
to Ireland where ^Ittft) or ^}}]t) (Erin, lerne) has 
been derived from the Keltic ]Afi, behind, the west ; 
and ft:, an island, the isle lying west of France 
and Britain. 

* Travellers who have inspected the excavations 
deride these pompous terms : the ruins look well in 
bouk-illustrationsy but the reality is mean in the 
extreme. 

* Dr. Schliemann shows the human umbilicus 
adorned with a cross. The signiBcance of such 
phrases as * omphalos of the earth ' applied to Delphi 
and Paphos, is generally misunderstood. Any traveller 
in India who has seen a Lingait temple would at once 



explain it, as well as the illustration in Wilkinson 
(vol. i. ch. iv. p. 270) showing the Lingam-Yoni, 
whose worshippers are * cherubim* (i.e. winged 
Thmei). Similarly the symbol of Chemosh of Moab 
and of sundry classical gods was a cone. The Dea 
Multimamma, Cybele, miscalled 'Artemis' (Diana) 
of the Ephesians, was a statue, not a cone, but it 
stood upon an inverted pyramid. The uninitiated 
as little understand the Crux Ansata or Egyptian 
Cross, the emblem of life and fecundity, which was 
adopted by the Coptic Christians. The sacred Tau 
(Tau of Ezekiel ix. 6) gave rise to the Maliese Cross 
in Phoenicia, and in Assyria became the emblem of 
Shamas the sun. 

■ I need hardly remind * Grecians ' that Tychius 
is supposed to have been a personal friend of the 
arch- Homerid. 



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ALL THE TROYS. i93 

quated contrivance is not yet wholly obsolete, especially when the metal is left 
naked. The only sig^ of a Sword (p. 332) was a fragmentary blade five inches 
and two-thirds long by nearly two inches broad, and with a sharp edge at the 
chisel-like end. Many golden buttons, not unlike our modern shirt-studs, were 
found in the * Treasury ' ; they had probably served to ornament the belts or 
straps (jskafjMvss) of knives, shields, and Swords.* 

We gather from Dr. Schliemann's labours that his * Troy,' at the time of its 
destruction, was a townlet still in the local Stone-age ; at the height of the Copper- 
Bronze Period ; and, perhaps, in the earliest dawn of the Iron-epoch. Apparently 
it had an alphabet, of which the Grecian enemy could not boast ; ' and, comparing 
its remains with those of Mycenae, its culture fully equalled, if not excelled, that 
of contemporary Hellas. It is curious to observe that the deeper the diggings, 
from twenty-four feet downwards, the greater were the indications of technological 
skill. According to Herodotus (ii. 1 1 8), the Egyptians bore witness to the power 
of Troy,' yet there is an utter absence of Nilotic influence in the remains, and 
Brugsch denies that there is any allusion to it on the monuments of Egypt A 
similar disconnection with Phoenicia and Assyria appears. The resemblance of 
the terra cottas to those found in Cyprus and in some of the iEgean islands 
suggests that there was an early relationship between the Phrygian Trojans and 
the Phrygian Greeks, both being * Indo-Europeans ' ; * and that the eternal Trojan 
war was, like the later contest between Russia and Poland, Federals and Confede- 
rates, nothing but a family feud, a venomous quarrel of rival cousins. 

To conclude the ever-interesting subject of Troy. Homer, or the Homerid 
so called, describes the city according to current legends, as an untravelled English- 
man of to-day would describe the Calais of Queen Mary. There is no reason to 
believe that he saw it, much less that he painted like the photographing of 
Balzac Hence it is a daring more than sublime, to find the Scaean Gate and the 
Palace of Priam. Even the number of superimposed settlements differs. Dr. 
Schliemann (* Ilios,' &c) proposes seven, while Dr. Wilhelm Dorpfeld * reduces 
the number to six. These, according to Professor Jebb, are as follows: (i) The 
Greek Ilium of the latest or Roman age, extending to about six feet below the 
surface. (2) The Greek Ilium of Macedonian age taken by Fimbria in B.C. 85 ; 
it extends over the plateau adjoining Hisirlik. (3) A Greek Ilium of earlier age, 
taken by Charidemus (B.C. 359) ; it appears confined to the little mound. (4) 

> Upon this point Dr. Schliemann's Mycetue is unproved theory. India did not supply Europe either 

more explicit. with speech or with population. The popular belief 

* It is, I need hardly say, still a disputed point appears erroneous as is its appreciation of Darwinism, 
whether the Homeric Greeks could or could not which did net derive man from monkey. The original 
write. See chapter xi. Egyptian roots developed themselves into a host of 

* M. F. Lenormant, the Academy ^ March 21 and dialects which flourished and perished before Pali 
28, 1874. and Sanskrit, a professor's tongue, like mediaeval 

* I must again protest against the use, while Latin, never understanded of the people, assumed their 
compelled by want of another to use the term • Indo- present shapes. 

European,* which, applied to language, contains an * North American Review, 



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194 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

Another unimportant village ; possibly No. 3 in its earliest form, when the iEolic 
settlers occupied Hisdrlik : the evidence of the pottery * suggests these to have 
been the oldest Hellenic remains. (5) Prehistoric city ; and (6) a distinct stratum of 
ruins also prehistoric To these Dr. Schliemann adds (7) the earliest prehistoric 
buildings founded on the floor-rock fifty-two feet below the surface and fifty-nine 
above the present level of the plain. 

Finally, Mr. W. W. Goodwin* comes to the 'ultimate conclusion* about 
Hisdrlik, that it shows only two important settlements. The first is the large 
prehistoric city extending over the hill and plateau. The second is the historic 
Ilium in its three phases of primitive iEolic occupation of the Acropolis, the 
Macedonian city, and the Roman Ilium. 

The immediate neighbours of Troy were the Lydians, whom history makes 
the forefathers of the ancient Etruscans.* Herodotus (i. 94) tells the tale of Tyr- 
rhenus and his emigration, which, however, differs from the account of Xanthus 
Lydius preserved by Nicolaus of Damascus. In the * Iliad * (ii. 864), the Lydians 
appear only as Maeonians. They were a people of Iranian speech, to judge from such 
words as Kav {canis^ kyon^ svan, &c., a dog), and * Sardis ' from ' Sarat ' or * Sard,* in old 
Persian Thrade and in modern Persian Sdl=a year. Apparently their language had 
affinities with the Etruscan and Latin ; for instance, Myrsilus, son of Myrsus, the 
Graeco-Lydian name of Candaules (Herod, i. 7), has been compared with Larthial- 
i-sa ; and Servilius from Servius, the / denoting son {Jiltus), shows the same pecu- 
liarity. The Lydians were a civilised people who first coined gold (Herod, i. 94) 
and stamped silver {ibid.) ; * their name will ever be connected with music. With 
them twelve was a sacred number ; it formed the perfect Amphictyony of the lonians, 
and it survived in the Confederacy of Etruscan cities (Livy, v. 33). Finally, the 
tomb of Alyattes * is apparently a prototype of the Etruscan sepulchres ; and the 
peculiarity of these * homes of the dead * suggests direct derivation from Egypt 
rather than coincidental resemblance. 

Until late years it has been accepted as an historic fact that the old colonisers 
of Tyrrhenia dwelt for years as conquerors in Lower Egypt The Tuisa, Tursha 
Toersha, and Turisa of the monuments wear a close-fitting calotte with a tall 
point, whence a long thin tassel falls to the back of the neck, like one of the 
Cyprus caps and the older style of Moslem Fez.® But Brugsch ^ converts the 

• Professor Jebb quotes M. Dumont, Ciramiq%u known to the Greeks. Most of the classical authors 

de la Grhe Propre. declare that silver was first coined at i£gina by order 

« The Academy^ Dec 9, 1882. of Pheidon (circa B.C. 869). 

« I have treated the question popularly in , Hamilton {Asia Minor, vol. i. pp. 145-6) has 

Etruscan Bologna (London : Smith, Elder. & Co., carefully described this most interesting monument. 
1876). The study owed its existence to the Rev; . _ . _ . 

Isaac Taylor, who. using the Family Pen once too . ' See the 'colossal male head' m General Palma 

often, supported the Turanian or-gin of the Etruscans *^* Cesnola, Cyprus, p. 123. 

in a marvellously uncritical and unscholar-like book,. ' Preface to History of Egypt, p. xvi ; and vol. 

Etruscan Researches (London: Macmillan & Co., ii. 124, where a list of racial names is given. 

1874). Brugsch, it should be noted, is here entirely opposed 

The stater of Croesus was the first gold coin to his predecessors, De Rouge, Chabas, &c 



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THE ETRUSCAN SWORD. 



195 



monumental Tursha into Taurians : he wholly discredits the existence of a 
Pelasgo-Italic confederacy in the days of Mene-Ptah I. and of Ramses III. ; and 
he positively asserts that the Egyptians of the Fourteenth Dynasty knew nothing 
of Ilium and the Dardanians, Mysians and Lycians, Lydians and Etruscans, Sar- 
dinians, Greek Achaans,* Siculians, Teucinians, and Oscans. 

However that may be, the Etruscans, the acenimi Tusci of Virgil, were a 
people of high culture, to whose inventive and progressive genius Rome owed her 
early steps in arts and arms.* A flood of light has been thrown 
upon this page of proto-historic lore by the extensive excavations 
of late years in the Emilian country about Bologna, the Felsina or 
Velsina of Tyrrhenia. My late friend, the learned and lamented Prof. 
G. G. Bianconi, forwarded to me the accompanying sketch (fig. 202) 
of an exceptional iron blade found in the ruins of Marzabotto.* It is 
described as follows (p. 3) in a work, printed but not published, 
by the learned archaeologist Count Gozzadini of Bologna, * Di ulteriori 
scoperte nell' antica necropoli di Marzabotto nel Bolognese' * : — 

* Within a cell only thirty centimetres deep, and disposed two 
metres distant from one another, lay three skeletons whose heads 
fronted eastwards. On each was an iron Sword-blade, sixty-two centi- 
metres long by four and a half broad near the tang {spina), and fining 
off to an olive-leaf point ; all have the mid-rib or longitudinal spine. 
Partly attached by oxidation to one blade is a remnant of the iron 
scabbard, slightly convex posteriorly and showing in the upper part 
a rectangular projection, perhaps to carry the hook attached to the 
balteus. The sheath-front has a mid-rib like the blade, and the 
wavy mouth is adapted to the Sword-shoulders. On this face only 
are two buttons {borchie) in high relief, connected by a band (Jistello). 
The tang, twelve centimetres long, shows the length of the hilt, which, 
being made of more perishable material, has altogether disappeared.* 

The long narrow rapier-blade with the mid-rib is first seen in 
the Egyptian bronzes ; * the step was easy to the harder metal That 
the iron form was common in Etruria as its bronze congener at 
Mycenae, is proved by the discovery of three in a single tomb ; bladb. 
moreover, as has been said, a fourth has been preserved for years in the Marza 



Fig. 90I. 
Thb Marzabotto 



* As opposed to the Aqaiuasha or Acbseans of the 
Caucasus (ii. 124). 

* * I have seen it affirmed that in those times 
(early Roman) the youth was instructed in the Etrus- 
can learning, as they are now in the Greek * (Livy 
ix. 35). 

* Described in Etruscan Bologna^ p. 144. The 
blade is in Count Aria's collection. The Sword of 
Misanello, utu tongue epie de/fr, also in that museum, 



is noticed in p. 359, Transactions of the Congress of 
Bologna in 1 87 1. 

* One vol. folio large quarto, with 17 Tables. It 
was preceded by * Di una necropoli a Marzabotto nel 
Bolognese,' 1865, large quarto, with 20 Tables. 
Count Gozzadini is one of the earliest students who 
followed in the steps of M. Boucher de Perthes. 

* A fine specimen of a dagger from Thebes with 
the rapier-blade, and a broad flat hilt of ivory, is in 
the Berlin Museum. 



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196 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD 

botto collection. All are similar in form, which is highly civilised. The number 
of the blades also suggests that they are of native make, not left by the Boians 
and the Ligaunians, who, according to the late Prof. Conestabile, may have buried 
in the Marzabotto cemetery. The date of the latter is somewhat uncertain ; 
but it cannot be much more recent than the burial-ground of Villanova, where 
Count Gozzadini found an (Bs rude, and which he dates from the days of Numa, 
B.C. 700. He is followed by Dr. Schliemann (* Troy,' p. 40), and opposed by that 
learned and practical anthropologist M. Gabrielle de Mortillet (* Le Signe de la 
Croix,' &c. pp. 88-89), who would assign a far earlier epoch. 

Count Gozzadini ' gives a valuable description of a fifth Etruscan Sword lately 
discovered at the * Palazzino ' farm, parish of Ceretolo and commune of Casalecchio, 
some ten kilometres south-west of * Etruscan Bologna.* In an isolated tomb, 
carefully excavated by the proprietor (Marchese Tommaso Boschi), was found a 
skeleton, the feet fronting southwards. On its left, extending higher than the 
head, was an iron lance-point,* and on the corresponding shoulder a thick armilla 
of bronze ; other objects, including an Etruscan Oenochoe, two knives wholly iron, 
and a chisel of the same metal, lay scattered about the grave which was not stone- 
revetted. Close to the right side was an iron Sword in a sheath of the same metal 
and wanting the heft : the general belief was that the weapon had been buried 
with the wielder. 

Count Gozzadini (pp. 19, 20) describes the Sword as follows: * Slightly 
bi-convex and two-edged, it measures 0*625 m^tre from the tang {codolo) to the 
end of the scabbard ; the tang, not including the part forming the grip, was cii 
metre. The breadth is 0*47 mitre at the shoulders, narrowing to a point, as 
is proved by the scabbard diminishing to 0*27 mitre at the end. The handle 
showed no sign of cross-bars or guard, which would also have been of iron ; and it 
IS evident that the haft was of some destructible substance which has wholly dis- 
appeared. The probability is that the grip was shaped like those of the preceding 
Bronze Age — that is, bulging out behind the blade for easier hold. The sheath 
was somewhat more bi-convex than the Sword ; an iron-plate about one milli- 
metre thick, had been turned over horizontally to unite the edges, which, near one of 
the sides, formed a narrow and gradual line of superposition. This scabbard ended 
in an ovoid crampet or ferule ; and a fragment of plate iron with a short broad 
hook, like that generally used for attachment to the belt, probably belonged to it' 

Here, then, we have again a perfect rapier. The only question is whether it 
was Etruscan, or, as supposed by M. G. de Mortillet, Gaulish.* Count Gozzadini 
argues ably to prove the former case.* He acknowledges that the invading Boii 

> Di un atUico Sepolcro a Ceretolo tiei Bologn^se Note Archeol^iche, &c (Bologna : Fava e Garagnani, 

(Modena : Vincenzi, 1879), P- 9- 1881). 

» This weapon resembled the bronze forms found ■ The learned French anthropologist compared 

at Broilo in Tuscany and in the great collection these weapons with those found in the Mame graves, 

discovered in 1875 and called the 'Fonderia di {LesGauloisde^farzabotto,RevueArchioLl%^o-^l,8LC.) 

Bologna.' An account of the latter is found in < Count Gozzadini replied in M. 0. de Mortillet's 



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THE ETRUSCAN SWORD. 197 

held the city and country for two centuries (B.C. 358-566), until the Romans 
expelled them for ever. But he shows that these peoples did not use such fine 
Swords. When treating of the Kelts (chapter xiii.), I shall show that the long 
unnianageable slashing Claidab or Spatha of these peoples had nothing in common 
with the strong, bi-convex, and thoroughly-civilised rapier of Ceretolo. 

Other blades like that of Ceretolo— long, narrow, and pointed — have been 
found in tombs notably Etruscan. Such, for instance, was that of Caere, now in 
the Gregorian Museum, Rome. In December 1879 two other blades were pro- 
duced by a necropolis in Valdichiana, between Chiusi and Arezzo, where a long 
Etruscan inscription was engraved upon the foot of a tazza. Two similar blades 
are also portrayed in relief and colour upon the stuccoed wall of a Caere tomb. 
Des Vergers * describes them as follows : * La frise sup^rieure est ornde d'Ep^s 
longues k deux tranchants, k la lame large et droite avec garde k la poign^, se 
rapprochant de celle que les Romains d&ignaient par le nom de spatfia. Les unes 
sont nues, les autres dans le fourreau.* Four such Swords were also produced at 
Pietrabbondante in the district of far-famed Isemia, and are preserved in the 
National Museum of Naples. Signor Campanari discovered in an Etruscan tomb 
a Sword-hilt in bronze attached to a blade of iron.* Finally, the Benacci property 
near the Certosa of Bologna also yielded an iron blade and iron chisels like those 
of Ceretolo. 

The late learned Prof. Conestabile truly asserts, ' Des Epees de m^me forme 
et de mfime dimension ont ^t^ trouvees dans d'autres localitds dtrusques, situ^s 
dehors la sphere des invasions Gauloises,notam men t en Toscane.' It is certain that 
such blades have been discovered on both sides of the Alps. As the Romans 
adopted the Iberic or Spanish blade ; so the Gauls may have substituted for their 
own imperfect arms the weapons taken from the Italians ; in fact, we know from 
history that they did so. Moreover, the Etruscans extended their commerce, not 
only over Transalpine regions, but to that vast region extending from Switzerland 
to Denmark, and from Wallachia to England and Ireland.* This has been proved 
by the investigations of many scholars: in Germany by Lindenschmidt, Von 
Sacken, Virchow, Kenner, Weihold, Von Conhausen, and Genthe ; by the Swiss 
Morlot, De Rougemont, Desor, and De Bonstetten ; by the Dane Worsaae ; by 
Gray, Dennis, Hamilton, and Wyllie in England ; by the Belgian Schuermans ; 
and by the Italians Gozzadini, Conestabile, Garrucci, and Gamurrini. Desor, 
when receiving the drawing of an iron Sword with bronze handle discovered at 
Sion, and declared by Thioly to resemble exactly those of Hallstadt, declared : * De 
pareilles Ep^s sont ^videmment fabriqu^es k I'dtranger et non dans le pays : elles 
nous conduisent done vers ce grand commerce Etrusque qui se faisait pendant la 

Maleriaux pour VHistoire primitive at rhomme\ * VEtrwit et la Etrusqua^ vol. i. p. 93. Atlas, 

and the paper was entiUed by the Editor (not by the p. 2, PI. II. * Genthe, Pro^ram^ &c. p. 15. 

author), < L'Element Etnisque de Marzabotto est sans ' The bronze is in the British Museum ; the iron 

melange avec Telement gaulois ' (Jan. 1873). ^^ ^^ possession of Mr. II. S. Cuming (Meyrick). 



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198 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

premiere ^poque de fer, ^poque sur laquelle on s'est tromp^ si souvent/ Livy,* 
in fact, proves the extent of arms-manufactory in Etruria, when he relates that in 
B.C. 205, at which time the Boiian occupation of Felsina ended, Arezzo alone could 
furnish Scipio*s fleet in forty-five days with three thousand helmets, as many 
Scuta and lances of three different kinds. 

But the rapier was not the only form of Etruscan Sword. In Hamilton's 
* Etruscan Antiquities,' ^ a human figure carries a cutting Sword like a ' hanger,' 
wearing the belt at the bottom of the thorax. The Ceramique of Etruria supplies 
copious illustrations of Swords and other weapons ; but the art is somewhat mixed, 
and our safest information must be derived from actual finds. 

We are justified by these finds in concluding that the Etruscans of Italy had 
from their earliest times a rapier which, for a cut-and-thrust weapon, is well-nigh 
perfect. The blade is long, but not too long; broad enough to be eflScient 
without overweight, and strengthened to the utmost by the mid-rib which forms a 
shallow arch. In chapter xi. I shall compare the Etrurian Sword with that 
of Mycenae ; the latter is a marvel of its kind, but it is made of a far inferior metal 
— bronze. 

> XXVIII. cap. 45. « Vol. iv, PI. XXX. ; it is copied by Meyrick. 



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J 99 




CHAPTER X. 

THE SWORD IN BABYLONIA, ASSYRIA AND PERSIA, AND ANCIENT INDIA 

Although Professor Lepsius maintained and proved that the earliest Babylonian 
civilisation was imported from Egypt, Biblical leanings, and the fatal practice 
of reading myths and mysteries as literal history, have led many 
moderns to hold the Plain of Shinar (Babylon) and the ancient head 
of the Persian Gulf to be the cradle of culture and the origin of 
* Semitism.* We still read, * Babylonia stands prominent as highly 
civilised and densely populated at a period when Egypt was still 
in her youthful prime.' * Only in Genesis (x. lo), a document treat- 
ing of later ethnology, we find mention of Erech,* Urukh being the 
oldest traditional king of Babylon. On the other hand, the Egyptians 
declared Belus and his subjects to have been an Egyptian colony 
which taught the rude Babylonians astrology and other arts. The 
monumental Babylonian or pre-Chaldaean Empire begins only in B.C. 
2300, many a century — say a score — after Menes. The late Mr. 
George Smith warns us that some scholars would make the annals 
' stretch nearly two thousand years beyond that time * ; but he ex- 
pressly declares no approximate date can be fixed for any king before 
Kara-Indas (circ. B.C. 1475 ?- 1450.^). Also, 'The great temples of 
Babylonia were founded by the kings who preceded the conquest by 
Hammu-rabi, King of the Kassi ' Arabs (sixteenth century B.C.).' 

The Burbur or Accad inscriptions found in Babylonia do not date before 



Fig. 303. 
Assyrian Sword 



' The writer of this sentence is, curious to say, 
the learned Dr. Birch (p. 5, voL L, Soc, Bib. 
Archaohgy^ 1 872). Even Justin (lib. i.) knew 
better ; he makes Sesostris (ii. 3) 1,500 years older 
than Ninus, * the most ancient king of Assyria,* whom 
ke places in B.c. 2196— 2144 (Wetzel), 

•In the LXX Orech ; the Cuneiform Uru-ki 
(City of the Land) ; in Talmud, Urikut, City of the 
Dead for Babylon {hod, Warka) ; and in Greek Orch6c, 
whence perhaps * Orcus.* Urukh became among the 
Classics of Europe * pater Orchamus.' 

• Assyrian Discoveries (London : Sampson Low 
& Co., 1876), p. 447. He gives, as a scheme of 
Abydenus and Berosus, the Chaldaean : — 



Ytan. 



Alorus and 9 kings before 
the Babylonian Flood 

86 kings after B. Flood to Me- 
dian conquest (ist dynasty) 

8 Median kings (2nd dynasty) 
1 1 other (3rd dynasty) , , 
49 Chaldaean (4th dynasty) . 

9 Arabian (5th dynasty) 
Semiramis. 
45 kings (7th dynasty) . . 

Nabonidus, the antiquary king (b.c. 555), accord* 
ing to a Cylinder found at Sipar(Sepharvaim, Sun-city) 
and studied byMr. Pinches, assigns a date to the deified 
Sargina of about B.C. 3,800 years. He unburied, 



432,000 

34,080 (33,091 
224 (160?) 
unknown 
458 
245 

526 



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200 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



B.C. 2000. Ninus, the builder of Nineveh (Fish-town) and the founder of the Assyrian 
dynasties, is usually placed between B.C. 2317 and 21 16. An extract, by Alexander 
Polyhistor from the Armenian * Chronicle, gives, by adding the dynasties, an 
origin-date of 2,3 1 7 years. Berosus the priest, declares from official documents, that 
Babylon (God's Gate) had regal annals 1,000 years before Solomon (B.C. 993-95 3)» 
in whose reign dynastic Jewish history begins. Diodorus Siculus, quoting Ctesias 
(b.C. 395) makes the monarchy commence one thousand years before the Siege of 
Troy, which we may place about B.C. 1 200. iEmilius Sura, quoted by Paterculus, 
proposes the date B.C. 2145, and Eusebius the Armenian 1340 years before the first 
Olympiad (B.C. 77(>\ or B.C. 21 16. The great kingdom of the Khita (Hittites)^ 
was succeeded on the rich lowlands of the Tigris-Euphrates system by Babylon, 
which the Nilotes called * Har,' and by the Assyrians, whom the Egyptians called 
Mat or the People, and hieroglyphs notice the * Great King of the Mat' But 
>*V Assur' was little known till the decline of the Pharaohs in the Twenty-first 
Dynasty (B.C. 1 100-966) of the priest Hirhor and his successors : one of the latter 
— Ramessu or Ramses XVI. — married, when dethroned, a daughter of Pallashames, 
the 'great king of the Assyrians,' whose capital was Nineveh,'* and thus led to 
the Assyrian invasions of Egypt.** We may, then, safely hold with Lepsius that 
early Babylonian civilisation was posterior to, if not imported from, Egypt^ 

In Babylonia a third element, the so-called * Turanian ' (Chinese), first emerged 
from Egyptian and began to take its part in the drama of progress. The almost 
unknown quantity has assumed magnificent proportions in the eyes of certain 
students, and great things are still expected from Akkadian revelation. Yet the 
race typified by the Chinese could have had no effect upon the learning of Egypt 



18 cubits below the surface, the Cylinder of Naramsin, 
son of Sargina (B.C. 3750?), 'which no king had 
seen for 3,200 years.* Sir Henry C. Rawlinson (the 
Aihenaum^ Dec. 9, 1882) is disposed to accept the 
date ' within certain limits.* 

' The word Is Har-Minni, or Mountains of the 
Minni. The oldest Armenian inscriptions date from 
the eighth century B.C. 

< It was in attacking these Khita that Ramses II. 
(Sesostris) \th his three ' columns * or tablets on the 
rocks near the Nahr el-Kalb of Bayrut (chap. ix.). 
Six Assjrrian inscriptions were also known there, 
bearing the names of Assur-ris-il!m, Tiglath-pileser, 
Assuma7irpal, Shalmanesar, Sennacherib, and Esar- 
haddon. No epigraphs were found on the north side of 
the river, where an ancient aqueduct, overgrown with 
luxuriant verdure, turns a mill. About three years ago, 
however, the proprietor, when making a new channel, 
broke away part of the rock, and a fragment bearing 
cuneiforms attracted the attention of Dr. Hartmann, 
Chancellor of the German Consulate. No other steps 
were taken till October 10, 1881, when M. Julius Loyt- 
ved, Danish Vice-Consul for Bayrut, bared the face of the 
cliff and discovered five cuneiform inscriptions, one con- 
taining 45 lines. They seem to have been hastily cut. 



as they follow the shape of the rock whose surface has 
not been dressed. According to Professor Sayce, they 
are Babylonian, not Assyrian. 

■ Or Asshur, * the Arbiter of the Gods,' repre- 
sented by the winged disc of Egypt. 

* Nineveh, destroyed by the Medcs (Manda or 
Madu) and Persians in B.C. 583, had thus a life of 
1,617 years, assuming its origin at the middle term, 
B.C. 2200. 

* Brugsch, vol. i. chap. xvL, shows that Seshonk 
(Shishak) and other Pharaohs of the Twenty-first 
Dynasty were Assyrians who ruled * Mat Muz-ur,* 
the people of Egypt. 

* The great scholar derives from Egypt the Cunei- 
form Syllabarijim, which was originally pictorial : — 
drawing everywhere preceded writing. The astro- 
nomy of Mesopotamia is Egyptian (the unit of 
measure being the ell of 0*525 mhre); and the 
architecture, that prime creation of the human mind, 
shows by temples, temple-towers, tombs, and es- 
pecially pyramids (e.g. that at Birs Namrud), an 
imperfect imitation of the Nile Valley. Herodotus 
attributes to Babylon the discovery of the Pole, the 
Sun-dial, and the twelve hours of day, all well known 
to ancient Egypt. The * Sabbaths ' are Assyrian. 



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THE SWORD IN ASSYRIA. 201 

' At the time when the genealogical tables of Genesis were written (chap, x.) those 
regions were still so unknown and barbarous that the writer excluded them from 
the civilised world/ * 

Our factual knowledge of Mesopotamian civilisation is mostly due to the 
labours of the present century. Professor Grotefend of Bonn, in 1801-1803, dis- 
covered the clue to the Persian cuneiform,* cuneatic or arrow-headed character. 
This great step in advance opened the labyrinth to a host of minor explorers — 
Heeren (1815), Bumouf (1836), Lassen (1836-44), Hincks, who attacked the 
Assyrian cuneiform, and, to mention no more, Rawlinson, whose * Reading made 
Easy * popularised the study in England. Actual exploration of the Mesopotamian 
ruins was begun by the learned Consul Botta (Dec 1842) who, after failing at 
Koyunjik opposite Mosul, worked successfully at Khorsabad, some ten miles to 
the north-east: four years afterwards (Dec. 1846) the first collection of Assyrian 
antiquities reached the Louvre. He was followed (Nov. 8, 1845) by Mr. (now Sir) 
H. A. Layard, who unfortunately was not an Orientalist : his various discoveries of 
a stamped-clay literature, and his popular publications, introduced to the public 
Koyunjik and Kal'at Ninawi (Nineveh), Hillah (Babylon), WarkA, Sippara (Abu 
Nabbah) sixteen miles south-west of Baghdad, and a variety of Biblical sites. 

This * recovery ' of antiquities buried twenty centuries ago, and a whole literature 
of bas-reliefs, enables us to compare the Nile Valley, the cradle and mother-country 
of science and art, with its rival-successor on the Tigris-Euphrates. The original 
workmanship of Assyria, like that of Egypt, is still unknown ; and, though she 
borrowed from Nile-land, her art is rather a decadence than a rise. The difference, 
indeed, is between the porphyries, the granites, and the syenites of Egypt, and the 
mud-bricks, the coarse black marbles, the rough basalts, and the undurable 
alabasters (a calcareous carbonate) of Interamnian Assyria. But the industrious 
valley-men made the best of their poor material. The ruins show the true 
Egyptian arch ; the so-called Ionic capital, the original volutes being goats' horns;' 
the Caryatides and Atlantes,or human figures acting columns ; the cornice, corbel, 
and bracket ; with a host of architectural embellishments to fill up plain fields. 
Apparently all migrated from Nile-land. Such were the winged circle, the lotus,* 
the fir-cone, and the rosette : the latter, also found by Dr. Schliemann at * Troy ' 

• The Athenaum^ July 24, i88a bidden in statuary by Act of Parliament ; or the 

• r»^..i.* t-jvi !•! artist should be compelled to supply the pinions with 

• That the Assyrians had books appears plainly . , '^ - T- ^u t 

r , . . / ,, ,, . , . . . J the muscles necessary for workmg them. I need 

from the inscriptions: * In the night-time bind , ,, *v * *u • j j 1 .. u 

, , . , *^ , , , * , , hardly say that the required development would con- 

round the sick man's head a sentence taken from a ^^uiT j—.!**!. r^L. 

-,,,^ .r.xT^i . t. vert the human dorsum to the appearance of the two- 
good book '(a soponnc!). Parchment was most prob- , , , »«. , ^ ^ ., t^ ^^ j • .1 
ui *u £ \ . • 1 / T- re D'L A L humped camel. The late Gustave Dor6 s admirable 
ably the first matenal [Trans, of Soc, Btb, Archoco- .,1 ^ .• r -m *. / r». ^ • » • . . 
, 1 .... J— V j^i. 1 illustrations of Dante (-flur^. xix. 51) sm greatly in 
logy^ vols. 11. 55, and ui. 432) ; and the language proves . . ° ^ / «> / 

that the papyrus-scroll (Duppu-ga-zu) was known. ^ajj • iv* u • ui. ., 

^ ^^ \ rr & / « ^ goddess m alabaster has m each hand a lotus 

■ We find in Assyria the wild goat standing upon flower, which she holds against her breasts. This is 

a capital, now the arms of Istria. The same appears characteristic of old Egypt, which derived the plant 

at Palmyra (Prof. Socin*s Collection). The winged from the Equatorial African Lake- region. The same 

bulls probably suggested, like the Egyptian Cherubs, figure again wears a large Egyptian wig, the hair falling 

our angels' wings. These motors should now be for- n ringlets upon the shoulders. 



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202 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

(p. 1 60), became the rosa mystica of Byzantine art, and was used by Christians to 
denote their origin. Again, we have the key-pattern, which is Trojan and Chinese 
as well as Greek ; the honeysuckle, a symbol of the Homa or Assyrian * Tree 
of Life ' ; ^ the guilloche-scroU or wave-pattern ; and the meander, also miscalled 
the Tuscan border : the latter is common in Egypt and Cyprus, and possibly derives 
from the Hittite Svasti, erroneously called Svastika.* Assyria equally excelled in 
literature,' in painting, in sculpture, in the minor arts, and in metallurgy. She 
made transparent gleiss : a crystal lens * found at Nineveh accounts for the diminu- 
live size of some inscriptions. Her sons worked enamel, and thus adorned the 
humble brick : like their Egyptian teachers, they were skilful in ivory-carving, in 
cutting cylinders of jasper and pietra dura, and in gem-engraving on camelian, 
onyx, sardonyx, amethyst, agate, chalcedony, and lapis lazuli. 

As regards Assyrian metallurgy, few articles of iron have been found in the river- 
valley's damp and nitrous soil, but the metal is denoted, as in Egypt, by a blue tint, 
and the god Ninib is termed the * lord of the iron coat.' Gold and silver were pro- 
fusely used as ornaments. Lead was dug in the Montes Gordaei (Kurd Mountains) 
near Mosul, the original Ararat of * Noah's ark.' Copper vessels, bright as gold 
when polished, were found in the palaces of Nimnid : the ore was brought from the 
northern highlands heading the Tigris Valley, where the Arghana ma'adan (Diyar-i- 
Bekr mine) long supplied the Ottoman Empire. The place that exported their tin 
is disputed.* They worked well in bronze : of this alloy many castings have been 
found : utensils, as pots and cauldrons, cups, forks and spoons, dishes, and plates, plain 
and ornamented ; tools, as picks, nails, and saws ; thin plates ; the so-called razors ;^ 
lamps ; weapons ; an aegis-like object also found in Egypt ; lance-heads, shields, 
and door-sockets each weighing six pounds and three and three-quarter ounces.^ 
The bronze gates of Balawat, with plates eight feet long showing the triumphs of 

* The Soma, a weed in India (AscUpias gigaMtea)^ ■ Assyria, like Egypt, ciiltivated geometry and 
is a derivation from Homa. The Persea, or Egyptian algebra, which have been supposed to originate from 
Tree of life, was probably the Balanitis Mgyptiaca, revenue surveys and altar measurements. She used 

the Astrolabe and popularised square roots and frac- 

• The careless concision of Svastika, the wor- tions, with a denominator of 60, the sole representa- 
shipper-sect, with Svasti, the sjnmbol, ¥ras made by tive of the decimal and duodecimal systems. With 
me in my Commentary on Camoens (chap. iv. * Geo- her fall (b.c 555) coincides the birth of literature in 
graphical '). Bumouf (Emile), in La Science des Reli- Greece, where writing became general about B.c 500. 
gions, made the Svasti the feminine principle ; and the The Assjrrians were great in magic and in divination, 
Pramantha, or perpendicular fire-stick, the male. If such as birth-portents, dog-omens, &c. &c. 

used on sacrificial altars to produce the holy fire * Again Egyptian. Wilkinson, II. chap. viL 

{Agm)f the practice was peculiar, and not derived from » The nearest site would be the Caucasus, which 

every-day-life : as Pliny knew (xvi. 77), the savage in early ages yielded a small supply. Layard (p. 191) 

uses two, never three, fire-sticks. The Svasti is ap- supposes the tin to have been obtained from 

parently the simplest form of the guilloche. According Phoenicia; and, 'consequently, that used in the 

to Wilkinson (II. chap, ix.), the most complicated (Assyrian) bronzes of the British Museum may ac- 

form of the guilloche covered an Egyptian ceiling tually have been exported, nearly three thousand years 

upwards of a thousand years older than the objects ago, from the British Isles.* 

found at Nineveh. The Svasti spread far and wide, • A 'copper instrument from Ko3n]njik ' (Layard, 

everywhere assuming some fresh mythological and p. 596) is ^aped exactly like the so-called Etruscan 

mysterious significance. In the north of Europe it razors. See chap. ix. 
became the Fylfot or crutched cross. » Layard, Nineveh and Babylon^ p. 163. 



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THE SWORD IN ASSYRIA. 



203 



Shalmaneser II. (B.C. 884-850), attest high art. Layard supplied the British 
Museum with many iron articles from the north-western palace at Nimrud, and 
some had iron cores round which bronze had been cast for economy. Amongst 
them were iron chain-armour, two rusty helmets ornamented with bronze ; picks, 
hammers, knives, and saws.* The approximate date may be Jissumed at B.C. 880. 
In mimic war (hunting) the Assyrians were proficients. Many hundreds of 
bas-reliefs, which are more natural because less conventional than those of Eg>'pt, 
illustrate the chase of the lion, stag, and jungle-swine; the wild horse, ass, and bull. 
They were equally skilled in the art of war, which is shown in all its phases, the 
march, the passage of streams, the siege, the battle, the sea-fight, or rather the 
river-fight, the pursuit, and the punishment of prisoners by torturing, impaling, 







♦ 




Fic. 203.— Assyrian Lance 
WITH Counter-weight. 



Fig. 304.— Assyrian 
Spbar-Hkad. 



Fig. 205.— Assyrian *Ra20r.* 

A sickle-shaped tool from a bas-relief. 
A similar weapon in iron, found at 
Paestum in Lucania, is preserved in 
the Mus^e d'Artillerie at Paris. 



flaying alive, crucifixion, and * tree-planting * or vivi-interment. The abominable 
cruelties of these Asiatics, still practised by the Persian, the Kurd, and the * un- 
speakable ' Turk, contrast strongly with the mildness of the African Egyptians. 
Their walls, single or double, were provided with the fosse and the rampart, and 
with machicolations, crenelles, and battlements ; the last two originally shields 
like the Egyptian cartouche. The places fortes were attacked by the wheeled 
tower,* the iron-pointed battering ram, the scaling ladder, and the pavoise, or large 
shield common throughout Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.' In 
the field pennons are attached to the lances, and the standard-bearers carry eagles. 



* See chap. vi. He figures one of the latter 
{Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon , 
p. 195) : it measured 3 feet 8 inches long by 4| inches 
in breadth. 

' ' Assyrians placing a human-headed bull on a 



car,* with levers and ropes (Layard, p. 112), reminds 
us of the statue of Ramses II., and shows that the 
people could move enormous weights. Both societies 
had ' unbounded command of naked human strength.' 
■ Demmin, pp. 293-94. 



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204 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



The action begins with missiles, slings, darts, and arrows ; the mace and spear then 
play their part, and the Sword is never absent. The warriors— who appear on 
foot or horseback, with gorgeous caparisons, in chariots or swimming with floats of 
inflated skins— wear helmets of many shapes, crested, crescented, capped with the 
fleur-de-lys and perfectly plain ; some are close-fitting with ear-flaps, the common 
skull-cap {namms) of Ancient Egypt, and the Indian Kan-top. The head-gear 
usually ended in a metal point — the pickelhaube. The sculptors show imbricated 
armour or hauberks (mail-coats) of the Norman type, with stockings of iron- (?) 
rings, gaiters, and boots laced up in front. The shields, either circular or rounded 
at the top and straight at the bottom, cover the whole body. 

The Assyrian Sword, like the Egyptian, is of four principal shapes. One, a 




Fig. ao6.— I. Babylonian Bronze Dagger : 
2, 3. Assyrian Swokds (Layard) ; 4. As- 
syrian Hronzb Sword (bas-relief in Palace 
of Khorsabad, reign of Saigon, b.c. 731-706). 



Fig. 907. 

Dagger-Sword 
in Sheath. 



Fig. 908. Fig. 909.— Club- Fig. ata- Fancy 

DACGBR-SwOROb SWORO. SwORO. 



long poniard of Nilotic form, is carried by all classes from king to slinger. The 
other {Malmulla.'i fig. 206, 3), by some translated * falchion,* appears slightly curved, 
not like the Turkish scymitar, but with the half-bend of the Japanese and the Indian 
TalwAr. The curved blades in the bas-reliefs mostly characterise conquered peoples. 
The third is the Sa-pa-ra or Khopsh, of which an illustration will be given (p. 208) ; 
and the fourth is a club-shaped blade thickening at the end, which is almost 
pointless.* In the cuneiforms a * double Sword * is often mentioned : it may be of 
the kind called by the Greeks * Chelidonian ' (chap. ix. and xi.).* Fancy weapons 
appear in the bas-reliefs— for instance, the Sword from the Nineveh palace of the 
Sardanapalus-reign, B.C. 1000 (fig. 210). 

Mostly the weapons have richly decorated hilts and scabbards. In a royal 

> We have still to explain * Kakku * (weapon ?) and double Sword * (Kakab gir-tab) -r yyft. * Ham- 
« Gizzin * (scymitar ?). masti,* also, is the • blade of the double Sword.* 

» In the Tablets we read of the • Star of the 



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THE ASSYRIAN SWORD. 



20$ 



sculpture the pommel is formed by a mound or hemisphere — a constant orna- 
ment — and below it is a ball between two flat discs : the upper jaws of two lions, 
placed opposite each other, embrace the blade and the grip where it presses 
against the metal sheath-mouth. Another has a lion's head on the handle. The 
two-lion scabbard is common, and sometimes the beasts are locked in a death 
embrace. In another specimen the royal blade is much broader than usual, and 
two lions couchant form the ferrule, embracing the sheath with their paws and re- 
trogardant or bending their heads backwards (fig. 212). The ferrule of another is 
enriched with a g^illoche. In the inscriptions of Assur-bani-pal ^ (Sardanapalus) we 






Fig. 3tt.- Assyrian Swords. 



Fig. ax2.— Assyrian Swords. 



Fig. 213.— Assyrian Dagger. 



read of a * steel Sword and its sheath of gold,' and of * steel Swords of their girdles.' 
Another legend runs — *He lifted his great Sword called " Lord of the Storm,"' 
proving that the Sword, like the horse, the chariot, the boat, and other favourites, 
had names and titles. 

The dagger is often decorated with the head of the hippopotamus (a Nilotic, or 
rather African, beast) surmounting an imbricated handle (fig. 2 1 3).* This poniard is 
worn in the girdle, and in some cases it appears under and behind the surcoat The 



' * Ashur create a Son,' B.C. 673. Assyrian Dis- 

c<n>eries, by G. Smith (London : Sampson Low, 1876). 

' Fur instance, that in the bas-reliefs of Burs 



Nimrdd, B.C. 1000, now in the Louvre. The hippo- 
potamus is now never found out of Africa. 



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206 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



longer weapon is carried by a narrow bauldric slung over the right shoulder and 
meeting another cord-shaped band at the breast, in fact suggesting our antiquated 
cross-belts. The Sword is always worn on the left side.* A royal Sword-belt 
bears several ranges of bosses and globules, which may be pearls : that of the 






Fig. 214.— Assyrio-Babylonian 
Archer in war coat, leg- 
gings, and fillet. Bas-relief, 
B.C. 700. (Museum of the 
Louvre.) 



Fig. 215.— Assyrian Foot Soldier 
with the coat, helmet and tall 
crest, greaves or leggings, target 
and lance. Bas-reliefs of Nineveh 
ofSardanapalus V. b.c. 700^ 



Fig. 2x6.— Assyrian Soldier Hunt- 
ing Game. Bas-relief of Khorsa- 
bad, of the reign of Sargon. (British 
Museum.) 



eunuch-attendant has three wide rows, the central broken here and there by round 
plates. A Magian wears a broad scarf with long hanging fringes cast obliquely 
over the left shoulder : it is edged with a triple series of small rosettes placed in 
squares, and it passes over the Sword, to which, perhaps, it acts bauldric. A 
soldier's bauldric is coloured red, like the wood of the bows 
and arrows. Another eunuch wears the Sword-belt buckled 




Fig. 217.— Foot Soldier of 
THE Army of Sennachrrib 
(B.C. ;ri2-707). From a bas- 
relief in tne British Museum. 
The shape of the conical 
helmet is modern Persian ; 
the coat and leggings appear 
to be of mail : the shield is 
round, large, and very convex. 






FiG. 218.— Assyrian 
Warrior, with 
Sword and Staff. 



Fig. 219. —Assyrian War- 
RioRS at a Lion Hunt. 



Fig. 220.— Assyrian Eunuch 
In mail-coat, with mace, 
bow, and dagger-Sword. 



over the waist-sash, and holds in his right hand a scourge : this was the emblem 
of official rank, as the Egyptian carried a hide-Kurbdj.^ Another soldier has, 
besides the Kamar-band (waist-sash), a red belt, and what seems to be its tassels 
hanging from the shoulders before and behind. 

» With cavalry as well as infantry (Layard, p. 55). Upon this, a very complicated subject, I shall have 
much to say. ' Whence the French cravache. 



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THE SWORD IN ASSYRIA. 207 

The Sword and the Sword-dagger seem to have been universally used in 
Assyria — none but captives and working men are without them. The vulture- 
headed * Nisroch the god ' (of Nebuchadnezzar) carries two long poniards in his 
breast garment, whereas Ashur in statues shoots his bow. Assur-bani-pal* destroys 
the people of Arabia with his Sword/ The king in his car, with his Cidaris (tiara) 
and fly-flap, has two daggers and a Sword in his girdle, from which hang cords and 
tassels. Another rests his right hand upon a staff", and his left upon the pommel 
of his weapon. A third plunges a short straight blade, like the matador's espada, 
between the second and third vertebrae of a wild bull, where the spinal cord is most 
assailable: this would be done to-day in the spectacula of Spain. Swords are 
worn by the magi and the eunuchs ; * and one of the latter draws his weapon to 
cut off* a head. The body-guard bears by his side a Sword longer than usual, and 
holds arrows and other weapons for his lord's use. Even the executioner does his 
work with the Sword. 

Happily for students, an ancient Assyrian bronze Sword was bought by Colonel 
H anbury from the Bedawin at Nardin.^ He could not ascertain whence it 
originally came, but it was probably placed in the hands of a statue, perhaps 
of Maruduk (Mars, father of Nebo or Mercury') : it certainly resembles those with 
which the god is represented upon the Cylinders * when fighting with the Dragon. 
The dimensions are : 

Length of blade 16 inches 

Length of hilt 5| >i 

Total length 2i| „ 

Width at hilt i^ „ 

Width at hilt base ij „ 

The weapon has a richly jewelled hilt inlaid with ivory. It is of the kind known 
in the Assyrian inscriptions ^,s ^^ g^TT (Sa-pa-ra).* It bears the following 
(cuneiform) inscription in three places: (i) along the whole length of the flat blade, 
inside edge ; (2) along the back ; and (3) on the outside edge, where it is divided 
into two lines : — 

' This abomination popularly derives from Semi- werefollowedbynaturalobjects,^iff^(sky),^^/(earth), 

ramis (Sa-am-mu-ra-mat) of Assyria, and extended Uea (sea), personified into a vast and various my- 

far and wide. Even in the earlier part of the present thology. Sun, moon, and aether, were the first Triad 

century eunuchs were manufactured for Christian and of Babylon. Thus the Chthonic gods of Greece,' 

Catholic Rome. The practice is still kept up in Uranus (the E^ptian C/mas), Gaia and Thalassa 

Egypt, Turkey, and Persia, although strictly for- (Assyrian), preceded the Olympic anthropomorphism, 

bidden by the Apostle of Allah. Of course they were represented with human shapes. 

2 Col. Hanbury exhibited it at the British Presently the priest introduced as godheads cosmo- 

Museum, Notes by Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen, poetic causes and effects, which presently peopled 

read April 6 : Trans, Soc, Bib. Archaology^ vol. iv. the Pantheon with glorified men. For, I repeat, man 

Part II. 1876. worships only one thing — himself. 

' Nebo, in the inscriptions, holds a golden reed ^ George Smith. ChaUfean Gmesisy pp. 62, 95. 

or rod, as the Homeric Hermes is Xpvir6ppains ; he * SiM or Sibirru, I have noted the probable deri- 

also leads the ghosts to Hades. The Chaldsean gods vation of this word from the Egyptian Sf, Sayf, or 

were, like the Egyptian, deceased ancestors, and they Seft ; and its resemblance to our 'sabre.* 



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THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



E-kal Vul-nirari sar kissati abli Bu-di-il Sar Assuri 
Abli Bel-nirari Sar Assuri va — 

(The Palace of Vul-nirari, King of Nations, son of Budil,* Sar (king) of Assyria, 
son of Bel-nirari, Sar of Assyria, and — ) 

And now, proceeding east, we may note that the PersepoHs sculptures distinctly 
show, as we might expect, Assyrian and Babylonian derivation. The Persians are. 



-hH 



m ''^1 




Fig a2x — Bronzs Sword bbaring thb Namb op Vul-nirari I., pound nbar Diarbbkr 

despite their prodigious pretensions, a comparatively modern people,' and they were 
rude enough when armed only with sling, lasso, and knife. The date of Hakhdmanish 
(Achaemenes), the A^ro eponymus of the ruling family, can hardly be made to 



1 Budil (says Mr. Boscawen) succeeded his father 
in B.C. 135a He defended the north-eastern peoples, 
the Nari and the Guti, Gutium or Goim ; he also 
built largely, and his son, Vul-nirari (Vul is my hope), 
from whose palace the Sword came, was one of the 
greatest of the early Assyrian kings. The British 
Museum has a long inscription recording his resto- 



ration of the causeway leading to the Temple of 
Ashur. 

* La3rard advocates the theory that the Persians and 
Hindus separated from a common centre about B.c. 
1500. But of what Hindus does he speak? Cer* 
tainly not of the * Turanian ' tribes, which peopled 
the peninsula before the Brahmin immigration. 



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THE SWORD IN PERSIA. 



209 



precede B.C 700. This was about the time (B.C. 721-706) when Sargon II. first 
mentions the Greeks as the Yaha of Yatnan (Yunan= Ionia), who sent him tribute 
from Cyprus and beyond. The Medes, before the reign of Cyaxares had con- 
ducted the Persians from the Caspian regions into Media Magna, were mere bar- 
barians, like the Iliydt or Iranian nomades of the present day, who number from 
a quarter to a half of the population. But in starting into life Persia succeeded 
to a rich inheritance — Babylon. To this conquest (B.C. 538) she was led by her 
hero king, Cyrus the Great, or rather Kurush* the elder, son of Cambyses 
(Xenophon), not father of Cambyses (Herodotus), and a contemporary of Darius 
the Mede.* Their courage and conduct, their loyalty and simplicity, their wise 




Fig. aaa.— Persian Archbr. From 
a bas-relief of Persepolis, the 
ancient capital of Persia (b.c. s6oX 
The long coat, probably of leather, 
descends to the ankle. The head> 
dress has nothing of the helmet, 
but nevertheless indicates work* 
manship in metal. 




Fic. 223.— Persian Warrior. From 
a bas-relief of Persepolis ; a cast 
b in the British Museum. The 
shield, high enough to rest on, is 
almost hemispherical ; the helmet, 
with ear and neck coverings in one 
single piece, differs from the As> 
synan. 




Fig. 224.— The Persian 
CiDARis, OR Tiara. 



laws, their generosity and their love of truth,' now unhappily extinct, raised them 
in Herodotus* day to the proud position of * Lords of Asia.' 

Between the bas-reliefs of Khorsabad and those of Persepolis there is the same 
difference as between the early Egyptian sculptures and the degenerate days of 
what Macrobius calls the * tyranny ' of the Ptolemies.* The drawing is less pure. 



* The GreeVs having no sh sound, turned Kurush 
into Kyros. 

• Media was North-Western Persia, from Armenia 
to Azerbaijan, south of the Caspian. 'Great Ar- 
menia' afterwards included Georgia and Abkhasia. 
From their racial name Manda or Mada came the 
Greek Mantiene and Matiene. (See Bib. Archaology, 
Nov. 9, 1882.) 

■ Herod, i. 136, 138, &c. All writers assure us 
that the ancient Egyptians and Persians, the Chinese 
and Hindus (Marco Polo), were truth-telling races 
who abhorred a lie. * How sweet a thing is truth I * 
exclaimed a Nile-dweller. In the Carpentras Inscrip- 
tion the LadyTa-Bai ' spoke no falsehoods against any 
one.* In the trilingual Behistun Inscription (B.C. 
516) Darius the king says, * Thou who mayest l^e 
king hereafter, the man who may be a liar, and who 



may be an evil-doer, destroy them with the destruc- 
tion of the Sword * (col. iv. par. 14). They are 
now emphatically the reverse. The wild tribes, such 
as the Bedawin, the Iliyat, and the outcasts of India, 
still preserve the old characteristic. * The word oi 
a Korager * is proverbial on the West Coast of the 
Hindu Peninsula. I cannot but attribute the deterio* 
ration to extensive commerce, contact with strangers, 
and change of faith. The subject, however, is too vast 
and important even to glance at in these page ; but 
I may note that the Hindii has deteriorated even in 
my day. In 1845 the trade-books of a Sahukir 
(merchant) were received as evidence in our law 
courts. In 1883 the idea would be scouted. 

* The conquests of Alexander the Great had given 
the civilised world a unity of language. The 
Ptolemies, having asserted Greek mastery in Egypt, 



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210 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



the forms are heavier, the anatomical details are wanting or badly indicated — they 
are, in fact, clumsy imitations of far higher models. 

Herodotus (VII. ch. lx.-lxxxiii.), when reviewing the army of Xerxes (Khshhershe 
= Ahasuerus *) in B.C. 480, numbers forty-five nations, of which only the six (including 
Colchians and Caspians) wore Swords. The long straight dagger was carried by 
the Pactyans, by the Paphlagonians, by the Thracians, and by the Sagartians, who 
spoke Persian, and who were in dress half Persians and half Pactyans (Afghans ?).* 
The Sagartian Nomades (chap. Ixxxv.) were armed with a short blade and with 
lassos of plaited thongs ending in a running noose : this denotes that they were 




^- 




Fig. 936. 
Persian Acinaces. 



1 




Fig. 225.— Persian Acinaces. 
(Here wom on right side.) 



Fig. 997.— Sword from 
Mithras Group. 



Fig. 998.— Sword in RsLiEr, 
Persbpous Sculptures. 



cattle-breeders.' Chapter liv. again mentions ' the Persian Sword of the kind which 
they call aKivaKrjs (Akinakes) : * like the Roman pugio and the modem couteau-de- 
chasse^ it was straight, not curved, as expressly stated by Josephus.* The Persian 
troops wore only these * daggers suspended from their girdles along their right 



established that perfect toleration which is proved by 
the Septuagint, Manetho and Berosus. ; 

> Famous in the Book of Esther (Amestris), which 
contains scant traces of the faith of Israel. This 
terrible virago (B.C. 474) caused the massacre of 800 
men at Shushan, and 7,500 in the provinces. From 
the Pehlevi name of Xerxes (Khshhershe), possibly 
we may derive the modem titles, < Shah * and 
« Shahanshah.' 

» Hence, perhaps, Pukhtu or Pushtu, the Afghan 
language, an old and rugged dialect of Persian type. 

■ The South American lasso has been pitted, of 
course on horseback, against the Sword. Many a 



murder has been committed with it in the Argentine 
Republic, the victim being * thugged ' unawares and 
dragged to death. Needless to say, the lasso was 
well known in Egypt (Wilk. i. 4), where it was 
used to catch the gazelle and even the wild ox. The 
Pasha or Indian lasso was ten cubits long, with a 
noose one hand in circumference. It was composed 
of very small scales, ornamented with leaden balls ; 
and was not regarded as a 'noble weapon.' The 
Roman gladiators, called • Laqueatores,' derived their 
name from the lasso : they must not be confounded 
with the * Retiarii.* 

* A.J, XX. 7, sec. 10. 



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THE SWORD IN PERSIA. 



211 



thighs.' Hence Cambyses died of a wound on his right side, and Valerius Flaccus 
describes a Parthian as — 

Insignis manicis, insignis acinace dextro. {Arg, vi. 701.) 

Julius Pollux explains it as a irzpaiKov l^i^ihiov^ rS fivp^ irpoa-rfpT'nfiepop (a Persian 
swordlet fastened to the thigh), and Josephus compares it with the Sica or Sicca.* 
The favourite weapon was the bow, although Darius speaks of the Sword as the 
instrument of punishment 

The Indians, afterwards so celebrated for their Swords, were in B.C. 480 barbarians 






Fig. 939.— Psssian Acinaces. 
From a bas-relief at Persepolis. 




Fig. 330.— DacgbR'PORms prom Pbrsbpous. 



dressed in cottons and armed with only cane bows and arrows. Of the twelve 
peoples who supplied the one thousand two hundred and seven triremes, the Egyp- 
tians had long cutlasses, the Cilicians * Swords closely resembling the cutlass of the 
Egyptians,' the Lycians* daggers and curved falchions, and the Carians daggers and 
* enses falcati,' which apparently were not used by the Greeks (chap, xciii.). 

Representations of the Persian Acinaces abound in the sculptures of Chehel 
Munar (the Palace of the Forty Columns) at Persepolis. Apparently there are two 
kinds. Porter's ' illustration (Plate 37) shows a handle like the modern weapon 
sheathed and slung to the right side: Ammianus Marcellinus (xiv. 4) and all 



* To be noticed in a future chapter (xii.). 

' Chap. ix. 

' Traveisin Georgia^ Persia^ ^c, (1817-20), by Sir 



Robert Ker Porter. Other illustrators are Le Bruyn, 
Chardin, Niebuhr, nd Leake {Athens^ ii. pp. 
22-26). 



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212 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



classics insist upon this unswordsmanlike peculiarity.* The other (Plate 41), worn 
by a robed Persian, and generally carried in the front-knots of the belt, has a 
crutch-handle and wavy blade, like the Malay Krfs (crease). In other places 
(Plates 53 and 54) a human figure stabs the roaring monster in the belly with a 
common * Khanjar '-dagger. The traveller considers the stout little weapon with 
broad blade and ferruled sheath apparently tied to the right thigh as the Persian 
Sword of that age, which the classics describe as very short. The lineal descendant 
of this weapon, now obsolete in Persia, is the Afghan Charay, a congener of the 
Egyptian flesh-knife Sword. 

According to Quintus Curtius : * The Sword-belt of Darius was of gold, and 
from it was suspended his scymitar, the scabbard of which was composed of one 
entire pearl' The practice of inlaying blades and hilts, still popular in Persia, 
may explain Herodotus (ix. 80), that amongst the spoils taken at Plataea by the 





Fig. a3x.— Acinacbs op Persrpolis. 



Fig. 232.— Acinaces of Mithras Group. 



Greeks * there were acinaces with golden ornaments.' That of Mardonius was long 
kept as a trophy in the temple of Athene-Parthenos in the Athenian Acropolis. 
On the other hand, as was elsewhere done, blades of gold were given honoris causd. 
Hence in the * Iliad ' (xviii. 597) we see Hephaestus making youths with golden 
cutlasses upon Achilles' shield. According to Xenophon the royal g^ft of Persia 
was a golden scymitar, a Nisaean horse with golden bridle, and other battle-gear. 
Herodotus (viii. 120) makes Xerxes present the Abderites with a golden scymitar 
and a tiara. Diana is girt with a golden falchion (Herod, viii. 77). The golden 
blade is not unknown to more modem days. In the * Chronicles of Dalboquerque * 
(Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 204) two pages stand behind the King of Cananor, one with a 
Sword of gold and the other with a scymitar of gold. The weapons are distin- 
guished from the 'Swords adorned with gold and silver' (vol. i. 117). The King 
of Siam also sent to Dom Manoel of Portugal ' a crown and Sword of gold ' 
(vol. iii. 1 54). Cuzco supplied a unique gold celt. 

The influence of the great Babylon io- Assyrian centre extended Egyptian art 

* It may, however, have been treated as a dagger, while the Sword was worn on the left. 



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THE SWORD IN INDIA. 213 

and science to farthest Asia. From Iran we pass, with the course of civilisation, 
eastward to India. Here the Hindu proper did not succeed in establishing himself 
amongst the original Turanian possessors of Hindustan, or the upper country, before 
the Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty.* The South was and is still essentially Turanian 
— witness Malabar and its * nepotism.* 

Unfortunately, India preserves no trustworthy Hindu records of the past. 
Although Herodotus called it the 'most wealthy and populous country in the 
world,' yet the absence of temples and other ruins suggests barbarism when Egypt 
and Assyria, Greece and Rome, were flourishing. While Buddhism is made to 
date from the sixth century B.C., and we have subsequent notices of Buddha's chief 
worshippers,* there was evidently very little civilisation in the days of Alexander 
(B.C. 327). Nearchus made the Indians ' write letters on cloth smoothed by being 
well beaten'; and Strabo (xv. i) doubts whether India knew the use of writing. 
They derived their art and literature from Graeco-Bactria, and they only degraded 
the former — Art in her highest form never travels far from the Mediterranean. The 
beautiful human animals and mauvais sujets who were the citizens of Olympus 
became in grotesque India blue-skinned, many-headed and multi-armed monsters 
— the abortions of imagination. 

India's two great epics (* Mahabhdrat * and * RamAyana') and fifteen Puranas are 
mere depositories of legendary and imaginative myths, containing few of the golden 
grains of truth hid in tons of rubbish. All the anthropology we learn from them 
IS that India had a primitive (Turanian T) race, called in contempt Rakshasas or 
demons. It was mastered by Brahminical attacks, typified in later days by Rama 
and other heroes, probably during the exodes of Hyksos and Hebrews from 
Egypt ; and long subsequently arose Buddhism, to be followed by the rule of 
the Moslems and Europeans.' 

The Dhanurvidya,* or Bow-Science, contains the fullest description we possess 
of the ancient Indian arms and war-implements, but the date of composition is 
exceedingly doubtful. The Hindii delights in vast numbers. Assuming the 
population of the earth at one thousand and seventy-five billions, his Aksauhini, 
or complete army, according to the Nitiprakdshika, an abstract Dhanurvidya by 
the sage VaishampAyana, amounts to two thousand one hundred and eighty-seven 

> Wilkinson (Egyptians^ II. chap, v.) remarks, « If "I would explain the fact that India is confounded 

there is any connection between the religions of Egypt with East Africa by the classics and by media:va 

and India, this must be ascribed to the period before geographers as a survival of the connection of 

the two races left Central Asia * ; and Layard, the continenU in the Miocene and, perhaps, in even 

it has been said, would place that period about 1500 later ages. 
B.C. I again protest against the idea that the 

Egyptian ever came from, or had ever anything to do * Utilised by Horace Hayman Wilson in his 

with, * Central Asia,' beyond civilising it. article * On the Art of War as known to the Hindiis.' 

* Chandragupta (Sandracottus ?) B.C. 316; his Dhanu (Sanskr. the bow) came to signify any mis- 
son Bindusara, B.C. 291 ; and his grandson (Dharm) sile or weapon ; and hence, Dhanurvidya comprised 
Asoka or Priyadasi, B c. 250-241, whose children the knowledge of all other arms. The bow was also 
divided the empire. The Topes are probably Phallic named ; for instance, that of Vishnu was called 
buildings. Sharnga (Oppert, p. 77). 



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214 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

millions of foot, twenty-one thousand eight hundred and seventy millions of horse, 
two hundred and eighteen thousand seven hundred elephants, and twenty-one 
thousand eight hundred and seventy chariots. The scale of salaries in gold ' £s 
equally liberal and absurd. 

The Hindii mind — so far justifying the term * Indo-Germanic ' — connects every- 
thing with metaphysics,^ or a something that goes beyond physical phenomena. 
Hence it ascribes all arms and armour to supernatural causes. Jiyi, a daughter 
of primaeval Daksha (one of the Rishis or sacred sages), became, according to a 
promise of Brahma, the creator, the mother of all weapons, including missiles. 
These are divided into four great classes. The Yantramukta (thrown by machines) ; 
the Panimukta (hand-thrown) ; the Muktasandhdrita (thrown and drawn back) and 
the Mantramukta (thrown by spells, and numbering six species), form the Mukta or 
thrown class of twelve species. This is opposed to the Amukta (unthrown) of twenty 
species, to the Muktdmukta (either thrown or not) of ninety-eight varieties,' and to 
the Bdhuyuddha (weapons which the body provides for personal struggles). All 
are personified — for instance, Dhanu, the bow, has a small face, a broad neck, a 
slender waist, and a strong back. He is four cubits high and is bent in three 
places ; he has a long tongue, and his mouth has terrible tusks ; his colour is of 
blood, and he ever makes a gurgling noise ; he is covered with garlands of entrails, 
and he licks continually with his tongue the two comers of his mouth.* 

The Sword (Khadga,* As, or Asi) belongs to the second class. According to 
the sage Vaishampdyana it was a superior weapon, introduced especially and 
separately by Brahma, who produced * Asidevati' This * Sword-god * appeared on 
the summit of the Himalayas shaking earth's foundations and illuminating the sky. 
Brahma entrusted the arm, then fifty thumbs long and four thumbs broad, to Shiva 
(Rudra), still its supreme deity, in order to free the world from the Asuras or 
mighty daemons. Shiva, after his success, passed it on to Vishnu, the latter to 
Marici, and he to Indra. The Air-god conferred it upon the guardians of the 
World-quarters, and these to Manu, the son of the Sun, for use against evil-doers. 

* The Commander-in-Chief drew four thousand harmashastra, or Institutes of Menu (Halhed, p. 53), 
Varvas (gold coins) per mensem. Prof. Oppert, with speaks of 'darts blazing with fire,* a well-known 
true German »««/^//, says (p. 8), * If this scale of sala- missile, but not to be confounded with fire-arms 
lies is correct, and if the salaries were really paid, one proper. And the Institutes in their actual form are 
would be inclined to think that an extensive gold cur- comparatively modem. 

rency existed in ancient India.' That the country % prof. Oppert gives the names of all these sub- 

worked its gold mines is proved by the Wynaad and divisions ; and. at the same time, a lesson in Hindu 

other diggings, lately reopened, but we may fairly absurdity (p. ii). 
doubt the coinage ; — at least, till a coin be found. . . .... . ,. 

• I now borrow from Professor Gustav Oppert, * ^ere we have the true Indian imaginativeness. 
On the Weapons ^c. of the Ancient Hindus The idea of a Western anthropomorphisms a bow 
(London i TrUbner, 1880). Unfortunately the work ^^' ^^^^ ^^^^*^° * 

is unillustrated. Its capital fault is not adducing • Prof. Oppert says that Book III. of the Nilfpra- 

proofs, or offering highly unsatisfactory proofs, of the kashika is entirely devoted to the Khadga. In the 

antiquity to be attributed to its authorities, the Shuk- Shukraniti, as will be seen, the word denotes a two- 

raniti (p. 43) ; the Naishedha (p. 69), and the various handed Sword six feet long. The Professor translates 

pagodas showing fire-arms (p. 76). The MAnavad- it * broadsword.* 



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THE SWORD IN INDIA. 



215 



Since that time it has remained in his family. The Khadga has a total of nine 
names : carried on the left side and handled in thirty-two different ways, the 
weapon became a universal favourite. Amongst the four arts to be studied besides 
the Kdma-Shastra {Ars Amoris), women are enjoined by the Sage Vatsya (Part I. 
p. 26)* to * practise with Sword, single-stick, quarter-staff, and bow and arrow.' 

The Hi (hand-sword, p. 17) is two cubits long and five fingers broad ; the front 
part is curved ; there is no hand-guard, and four movements are peculiar to it The 
Prasa, or spear, in some works becomes a broadsword. The uterine brother of the 
Sword is the Pattisha or two-bladed battle-axe. The Asidhenu (dagger), the 
* sister of the Sword and worn by kings,' is a three- 
edged blade, one cubit long, two thumbs broad, 
without hand-guard, carried in the belt, and used 
in hand-to-hand conflict. The Maushtika (fist- 





FiG. 933.~HiND(} Warrioks 

From mesnorUl stones of Bijanagar, of which the Kensington Museum 
possesses photographs. The date of these monuments correq)onds 
with our Middle Ages. 

Sword, Stiletto *) is only a span long, and thus very 
handy for all kinds of movements. 

The sage Vaishampdyana, a pandit or pedant 
lecturing on the Art of War, warns us that the * Effi- 
ciency of the weapon is subject to great changes. 
In different ages and places the quality of an arm 
is not the same, for the material and mode of 
construction greatly vary. Moreover, much depends upon the strength and ability 
of the person using such weapons, in preserving, increasing, or diminishing their 
efficiency.' It may also be remarked that many of his weapons appear to be the 
results of a brain quickened by opium or hash/sh. 

The sage Shukra, or Preceptor of the Daemons, also discourses learnedly, in his 
' Shukraniti,' on armies and weapons, including firearms. The only practical part 



Fig. 934. 
a, Javanbsb Bladb, showing Indian 

DERIVATION. *. HiNDtJ SaBJW. 

From a bas-relief at Bijanagar. 



* He lived between the tenth and thirteenth cen- 
turies and wrote a notable Ovidian work. A transla- 
tion is now being printed (not published) by the 
Hindoo Kdma-Shastra Society of London and 
Benares. 



« The Italian word is evidently a diminutive of 
the Latin stilus, or rather stylus (vrvKos), Dagger 
(Germ. Dolch) is from the Keltic da^^ point. Degen, 
a larger weapon, originally means a warrior ; hence 
the Anglo-Sax. Tbaegn and our Thane. 



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2i6 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

of chap. V. (Oppert, pp. 82-144) is his description of the lucky and unlucky marks on 
horses. The Arabs have a similar system, and a horse with inauspicious signs sells, 
however well bred, for a small sum. And there is wisdom in verse 242 (p. 124) : — 

A non-fighting King and a ne'er-faring Priest (Brahman) 
Earth swallows as Snake the hole-dwelling beast. 

As regards the Sword, Shukra says (Lib. iv. sect vii. p. 109, verse 154) : — 

Ishadvaktrashcaikadhdro vistdre chaturangulah 
Kshuraprdnto ndbhisamo drahamushtissucandraruk 
Khadgah prasdshchaturhastadandabudhnah ksurdnanah. 

The Sword is a little curved and one-bladed ; it is four-fingers broad, and 
sharp-pointed as a razor ; it extends up to the navel, has a strong hilt, and is briUiant 
as the beautiful moon. The Khadga (two-handed Sword) is four cubits (or six 
feet) long,* broad at the hilt, and at the end-point sharp like a razor. 

From neither of these works do we learn anything about an interesting subject 




Fig. 935.~Battle-Scbnb pkom a Cavb in Cuttack, First Cbntusy a.d. 

— the elephant- Sword. It is mentioned by the Italian traveller Ludovico di 
Varthema (A.D. 1 503-1 508), who makes it two fathoms long and attached to the 
trunk. Athanasius Nikitin calls it a scythe. Knox in his * Ceylon ' also speaks of 
a sharp iron with a socket of three edges ' placed on the teeth ' (tusks T). It was 
probably derived from the West Antigonus, the great elephantarch ; Seleucus, and 
Pyrrhus armed their beasts with ' sharp points of steel in the tusks * — veritable 
Swords. In Da Gama's day each animal wore ten blades, five to the tusk.* 

It must be borne in mind that upper India about the beginning of our aera was 
mostly Buddhist, and consequently she bred men of peace. Yet the caves and the 
cave-temples supply in bas-relief specimens of Sword-bearers, and even of free fights. 
The weapon is mostly the short stout blade, corresponding with the Persian 
Acinaces, but worn in modern fashion on the left side. Mr. James Fergusson has 
kindly supplied me with two illustrations. The first (fig. 235) is the battle-scene 

» Strabo (xv. I, § 66) makes the Indian Sword three of the Alexandrine day notice two-handed Swords and 
cubits ( - four feet and a half) in length ; and the Greeks bow-drawing with the feet. ' Roteiro, p. 115. 



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THE SWORD IN INDIA. 



217 



showing two Swords. A huge chopper or falchion, with a tooth on the back, is 
wielded in the left hand, the right supporting the shield.* The other, straight with 
one median ridge, is broad at the end instead of being pointed. The second (fig. 236), 
which Mr. Fergusson calls the ' first Highlander,* is of the same date, and it shows 




Fig. 236.— The First Highlander. 

very distinctly the handle — which might be modern — the sheath, and the mode of 
wearing. It is more distinct in the photograph than in the woodcut made by the 
author's artist. 

The temple-caves of Elephanta or Gharapuri (cave-town) in the Bay of Bombay, 
described by Forbes and Heber, Dr. Wilson and Mr. 
Burgess, show a very different and superior article. 
This comparatively modem basilica — burrowed out of 
the rock and dedicated to Shiva or Mahadeva, the third 
person of the Hindu Triad, and the representative of 
destructive-reproduction in his Trimurti or triple form 
— contains a multitude of alt-reliefs from ten to fourteen 
feet high, and so prominent that they are almost 'under- 
cut,' joined to the parent-rock only by the back. At the north-east angle stands 
the figure of the hero Arjuna, the presumed ancestor of the Pandya Princes. This 




Fic. 937.— Arjuka's Sword. 



• This is evidently inverted. The huge falchion, 
an exaggeration of the Kukkri, may be seen in the 
British Museum, one blade inscribed with Pali 



characters. Most of these huge weapons were used in 
sacrificing ; and the low-caste Mhars still behead with 
falchions the buffalos offered to Kali. 



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2l8 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



Brave, an especial favourite in Southern India,^ holds, in the right hand, perpen- 
dicularly and point upwards, a short, straight blade, with a bevelled point like the 
Roman ; there is a small hand-guard ; the fist fills the grip, and the large pom- 
mel confines the hand, as is still the fashion throughout India. 




Fig. 338.— Javanrse Sculptures with Bent Swords. 

The military tactics of the earlier Hindiis are familiarly shown by our game of 
chess.* But their pandits and students, writing in the closet, borrowed or devised 
a whole body of * strategemata,' making it easy to find amongst them the Phalanx, 
the Legion, the Wedge, or the Crescent attack. 




Fig. 939.~PeshXwak Sculptures. 



Professor Oppert informs us' that theAx\idL{Calatropisgigantea\\hQ huge swallow- 
wort with milky and blistering juice, which grows wild all over the peninsula, if 
' used with discretion when iron is being forged, contributes greatly to the excellence 



■ He constantly appears in the Mahabharata, 
especially in Book I. 

' Some writers are determined to find chess amongst 
the Romans, and quote the Panegyric of Piso, and 
the game of Latrunculi. But if so, where are their 



chessmen ? The earliest allusion in any knovm author 
is in Anna Comnenas Alexias, when the First 
Crusade had done some good by mixing the Eastern 
and the Western worlds. 
■ Loc, cit, p. 61. 



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THE SWORD IN INDIA. 219 

of the Indian steel' The simple is well known to the native alchemist, to the 
doctor, and to the vet., but I was not aware of its being generally applied to iron- 
working. 

I reserve for Part II. details concerning the modern Indian Sword and the 
blades imitated from it. Lieutenant-Colonel PoUok (Madras Staff Corps)* de- 
scribes, unfortunately without illustration, the Burmese Dalwel (* Dalwey,' vol. ii. 
p. 18) or fighting-Sword, a * nasty two-handed weapon with a blade about two feet 
long, and as sharp as a razor* (i. 51). He also notices the Dha, or Dhaw, a knife 
six inches long, equally fitted for domestic use and stabbing. 

Note. — My lamented friend Dr. Burnell, whose loss to Anglo-Oriental philology is so 
deeply felt, took a notable part in reducing HindiS claims to remote antiquity. Whereas 
Sir William Jones, a litterateur thoroughly well imposed upon, dated the Laws of Menu from 
A.D. 1280, Bumell boldly assigned them to the fourth century a.d., and partly to a much 
later period. The Theatre of Kaliddsa (Sakuntala, Urwasi, &c.) he has attributed to the sbcth 
century instead of the first ; in fact he leaves nothing to ac. but parts of the Vedas and the 
earliest Buddhist texts. 

We can accept the reform unhesitatingly. The oldest HindU inscription (Girndr) dates 
from about b.c. 250 ; the oldest Cave-temple firom still later. The alphabet is a lineal de- 
scendant from the Egypto- Phoenician. The earliest Hindd buildings were wooden : India 
had no architecture which could vie with those of Greece or monarchical Rome, much less 
with the mighty works of Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Hindd*s * iron-built * cities were prob- 
ably clay-walled settlements. His mythology was Egyptian tempered with Greek : for 
instance, the four Yugas or periods, in the fourth of which (Kali, the black Yuga) we now 
are. And considering how early Christianity found its way into the Peninsula, and the highly 
subjective and receptive nature of the people, I cannot but believe that they borrowed largely 
from the sacred writings of the stranger. It is easier to hold that Christ originated, or at 
least influenced, Krishna, than with Volney to hold Krishna the original of Christ. In 1852 
Mr. Pocock wrote about * India in Greece* ; in 1883 we want a change of venue to * Greece 
in India.' *Yavana* (Greek) entered India with Alexander, and this gives a terminus a quo 
though not ad quern. 

• Sport in British Burmah (London : Chapman and Hall, 1879). 



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220 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE SWORD IN ANCIENT GREECE: HOMER; HESIOD AND HERODOTUS: 

MYCENiE. 

' Homer and Hesiod/ says Herodotus/ * lived, as I hold, not more than four 

hundred years before my time.* This would date them between B.C. 880-830. 

The contemporaneity of the bards, their cousinship, and even their existence, has 

been copiously doubted : some place Hesiod before, others two hundred or three 

hundred years after — 

Blind Milesigenes thence Homer called \ 

and we have come to look upon Homer as one of the Homeridae, the heros epony- 
mus of the bards who produced the * Iliad ' and the * Odyssey.* 

Assuming, with Dr. Schliemann, the date of the Trojan war at about B.C. 1200,* 
Homer, according to the * Father of History,' would flourish about four centuries 
and a half after the wars he sang. 

* I wish I could have proved Homer to have been an eye-witness of the Trojan 
war. Alas, I cannot do it ! At his time swords were of universal use, and iron 
was known, whereas they were totally unknown at Troy.' Besides, the civilisation 
he describes is later by centuries than that which I have brought to light in the 
excavations. Homer gives us the legend of Ilium's tragic fate as it was handed 
down to him by preceding bards, clothing the traditional facts of the war and 
destruction of Troy in the garb of his own day.' * 

Metallurgically speaking, the sacred Bards and Heroes of Hellas, whose works 
formed the Holy Writ of Greece,* lived at the height of the Copper and in the 
beginning of the Iron Ages. Metal, not yet cast {x<^vzvtov\ would be worked in 

' Lib. ii. cap. 53. » The Arab, or rather the Moslem, practice of 

' The earliest date of the famous siege is B c. Koran -reading may explain that of ancient Greece. 

1370 (Justin, like the Arundelian marbles, gives There are two distinct ways : the vulgar, as though it 

B.c. 1 184), and the latest is B.C. 724-636. In Troy were a profane book ; and the learned with peculiar 

and its Remains^ we find (p. 123) that the age pro- intonation {Kird^at)^ of which there are some seventy 

posed for the founding of the city is B.C. 1400 ; that systems. The Hindus recite with a similar artful 

the war took place after the reigns of six kings modification. So the Hellenes would either pronounce 

(p. 27), say two centuries, or in B.C. 1200 ; and their scriptures. Homer and Hesiod, according to 

that Homer lived 200 years after the destruction of popular accent, or intone by quantity. That mon 

the city (p. 91), or in B.C. 1000. Thus Herodotus ever wrote accents without pronouncing them is one 

and Dr. Schliemann do not agree ; but what possible of those wild theories which can commend itself only 

agreement can there be upon such a subject ? to a savant. Besides, we know that as late as the 

• Would it not be more prudent to say * not eleventh century there were Greek authors who wrote 

hitherto found * ? * Dr. Schliemann, Ilias, indifferently according to accent or quantity. 



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THE SWORD IN GREECE 221 

primitive fashion with the hammer {<T<f>vpa^<T<f>vpi]\aTovy and there were two 
manners of hammer-work, the Holosphyraton, in solid mass, and the Sphyraton or 
plate-work. Casting and soldering were invented (for the Greeks), according to 
Pausanias * and Pliny,' shortly after Homer's day by the Samians Rhoecus and 
Theodorus. The latter, who lived between B.C. 800 and 700, may have introduced 
core-casting, so well known to Egypt and Assyria. The joints would be united 
by the normal mechanical means,* and the ornamental house-plates would be 
attached to the walls and floors with nails and studs. The idea of the firmament 
being a copper dome vault is known to Pindar as well as to the ' Iliad * and the 
' Odyssey.' * Tartarus, below Hades,* had a similar threshold, and Atlas in Euri- 
pides had copper shoulders.^ 

Ornamentation (BaiBdWetv) was applied with gravers, burins, and similar 
instruments ; to domestic implements (cups and goblets, craters or bowls, cauldrons 
and tripods) ; to sacred vases for the temple ; and to trumpets,® arms, and armour. 
Besides the brazier (xaXxeiff) we find the gold caster (xpvaoxoosi) who gilds the 
bull's horns.® 

The Homeric bards *® and Hesiod are well acquainted with iron (<r^/3oy)," and 
with steel in its various forms— Cyanus, Addmas, and Chalyps. The former men- 
tions seven metals, the Haft-Jiish (* seven boilings '), which he, like the Persians, 
had learned from Egypt Quenching in water, or tempering, was well known to 
the * Odyssey,* as we learn from the sputtering of Polyphemus' eye " : — 

And as when armourers temper in the ford 
The keen-edg'd poleaxe, or the shining sword. 
The red-hot metal hisses in the lake, &c.*' 

And he would, doubtless, know that steel is softened by simple exposure to 
gradual heating. Slderos is common wrought iron ; so we find atSi^peov for the 

* The tools knovm to the Hiad were those of nine books, of which the argument has been pre- 
Central Africa, anvil, hammer, and tongs (//. xviii. served by Proclus in Photius ; and it forms a kind of 
477, and Od, iii. 434-5). introduction to the I/iad, See Palma's Cyprus^ p. 

* viiL 14 ; ix. 41. ' xxxv. 12, 43. 13. ' Homer ' is said to mention iron thirty times. 

* E.g. 8^<r/iot, bands or ties ; 4fAoi, studs ; W9p6v«u, " Dr. Evans (Bronze^ p. 15) quotes Dr. Beck's 
pins, fibula; ; and ic4rrpa, points (//. xviii. 379 ; xi suggestion that the -eros of Sid-eros is a < form of 
634 ; Pausanias xi. 16). * iii. 2. the Aryan ais (conf. as, oris). In another place 

* //.viii.20. The Assyrian Hadi or Bet Edi, * House {Stom, p. 5), he alludes to the possible connection of 
of Eternity,' probably Grecised, by an after-thought, to Sideros with &<m)p (a meteor), the Latin Sidera, and 
&1845— invisible. See the earliest 'Miracle-play,' the JEnglish Star. 

the descent of Ishtar into Hadi ; Soc, Bib, ArchmoL ** Od, ix. 391. 

vol. ii. part i. p. 188. »» This is a fair instance of * elegant translation.' 

' Eur. Ion. i. What Homer says is : 

* From Ae <»pper trumpet comes X«A«^~.. ^,^ ^ ^ blacksmith-wight some weighty hatchet 
nngmg-voiced (/f. v. 785). The Iltad apphes the i» t» y 
epithet to Stentor (//. v. 785), and Hesiod (Tluog. jjip^^rLer cold with a mighty hissing and 
3..)toCerben.^ sputt'ring. 

wi t:. ' '."' .* n. ' « • .V r.i. Qucnching to temper, for such b the strength and 

*• Formstance, Stasmus or Hegesias, author of the t r f ' 

Kypria or C3rprian //iW( Herod. Lib, ii. 117), assigned ^ 

to the end of the eighth century B.C., when Kypros The reply will be that Homer does not say it in 

may have had her •Homeric School.* It was in this way ; and to this reply I have no rejoinder. 



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222 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

Iron Age * and alBrjpo9 woKlS?* which should be translated, not * hoary,* but iron- 
grey.' The 'black' (dark-blue) *Cyanus* {xvavos) mentioned by the 'Iliad,*' 
would be a fusible or artificial steel made to imitate the true blue-stone or lazulite 
(Theophrastus, 55).* The adamas {ahdfiasi) of Hesiod,* who specifies the iron 
of the Cretan Idaei Dactyli, would be a white and tempered metal ; while ;^aXv^ 
(steel in general) either named or was named by the well-known Chalybes. That 
the harder substance was not rare, we see by the injunction,^ * Do not, at a festive 
banquet of the gods, pare from the five-pointed branch (hand) with bright steel, 
the dry from the fresh ' : £.e. don't cut your nails at dinner. So at the Battle of 
the Ships,^ Homer studs a great sea-fighting Xyston (pole), twenty-two cubits long, 
with spikes of iron ; and elsewhere speaks of a *cyanus-footed table.' ® 

Yet copper was the metal for arms and armour. While the shield of Hercules 
was made of alabaster (not 'gypsum'), ivory, elektron (the mixed metal) and 
(pure) gold, the hero is armed with a * short spear tipped with gleaming 
copper ' ; ® and he fastens around his shoulders a ' Sword, the averter of destruc- 
tion,' which the context suggests to be of the same material. The ' fair-haired 
Danae's son, equestrian Perseus,*^® bears a Sword of copper with iron sheath 
hanging by a felt-thong (jjuekavSerov 5op)." The seven-hide shield of Ajax ** was 
;^a\^6o^, of copper — not 'brass-bound* as Lord Derby has it .The lambs* throats 
are cut with the ' cruel copper ' (x^\k69 *'), and Diomede pursues Venus with the 
same weapon.** Hephaistos makes for Achilles a shield of gold and silver, copper 
and tin ; ** and canny Diomede's armour *^ is of copper, which he changes for 
gold, * the value of a hundred beeves for the value of nine.* 

In the 'Iliad* close-handed combat succeeds to missile-using. As Strabo 
remarks,*^ Homer makes his warriors begin their duellos by weapon-throwing 
and then take to their Swords. But the latter is the weapon, rivalled only by the 
hand-spear. Hence the Egyptian-taught Argives are insulted as arrow-throwers ; ** 
and Diomede reviles his foe as ' an archer and woman's man.* *® The taunts are 
still known to savage tribes of modern day. 

The Homeric Sword has five names. The first is Chalcos (copper, and perhaps 
base metal), used like the Latin ferrum. The second is XiphoSy a word still 
generic in Romaic poetry and prose ; the diminutive being Xiphidion. The third 
is P hdsganoHy "^xonoMViCtA PhdsgAanon,^® and the fourth is A or. Thrace,** a famous 
manufactory of art-works even in early ages, produced the best and largest of these 

» lies. O^a, 174, sq. " IBiJ, ix, 366. Compare Eurip. PAan. 109 1. There is much more 

• xi. 34, 35, &c to be said concerning * Phasganon.* 

* Dr. Schliemann is assuredly singular when " //. vii. 220. " 7/. iii. 292. " //, v. 330. 
translatingthellomericCyanus by 'bronze* (Preface to *» //. xviii. 474 sq. *• //. vi, 236. " x. I. 
Afyccnafp,x.). Mi\\in{Afw/raU^uJ/offiJri^t4£)ho\dsit " //. iv. 242, xiv. 479, " /I. xi, 385. 

to be tin. The ' Cyanus * of Pliny (xxxvii. 38) is lapis ^ The Romaic ^h is, as far as I know, the only 

lazulL • Ofera, 149; T/ieo£^, 161, and iSr«/. 231. modem European representative of the 'Semitic* 

« £r^, 742-43. ' //. XV. 677. • xi. 629. ghayn, which French writers must transliterate by 

» Scut, LI. 125-132. »• Scut, 216-224. R ! e.g. Razzia for Ghazweh. 

" Ibid. So early was that detestable invention, the ** Even in the army of Perseus we are told by 

metal scabbard, introduced. Thus we must under- Livy (xliv. 40), the Thracians marched first brandish- 

stand the <pdvyava Kokh, /xcXdyScra (//. xv. 713). ing, from time to time. Swords of enormous weight. 



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THE SWORD IN GREECE. 



223 



blades; we find a Thracian Xiphos, possibly of steel, 'beautiful and long/ In 

the hands of the Trojan prince Helenos;^ and Achilles at the funeral games 

offers as a prize a Thracian Phdsganon, fair and silver-studded.' This hero' 

was drawing his mighty Xiphos* from the sheath (/coXeo^, culeus^ vagina^ 

scabbard) to assault Agamemnon, when at Athene's instance, 'still holding 

his heavy hand upon the silver hilt, he thrust back the great Sword into the 

scabbard.' The Xiphos with silver studs or bosses occurs in sundry places,* and 

one, with a gold hilt and a silver scabbard fitted with golden rings, belongs 

to Agamemnon. Dr. Schliemann explains the epithet ndfjL<f>at,vov^ by the 

line of gold bosses lying near one of the Swords ; they were 

broader than the blade and covered the whole available space 

along the sheath. Thus the Homerid's Helos (^Xoj), usually 

rendered 'stud* or *nail,'Jwas applied to the bosses, or buttons, 

that break the mid-rib or that stud the blade near the handled 

Paris slings on a copper silver-studded Xiphos.® Menelaus, 

with the same weapon, strikes off his enemy's Phalos — the 

helmet- ridge bearing the L6phos-tube which confines the Hip- 

pouris or horse-tail crest. Patroclus, when arming himself,® 

hangs from his shoulders the silver-studded Xiphos of copper 

(^i<f>ov dpyvp6f}\ov, ;^a\/c6oi') ; and Achilles has a large-hilted 

Xiphos.*® Peneleos and Lycon," having missed each other 

with the spear, ran on with the Xiphos, which is here again 

called Phdsganon ; but Lycon's weapon broke at the hilt 

(Kav\69=cau/is)f and the Xiphos of Peneleos 'entered, and 

only the skin retained it ; the head hung down and the limbs 

were relaxed.' On the shield of Achilles*' Hephaistos*' 

figures youths wearing the golden Xiphos slung from silver 

belts. 

Opposed to the Xiphos, a straight ' rapier blade,* as we shall 
presently see, was the <f>d<ryavov or dirk, probably a throwing- 
weapon like the Scax and Scramasax. The two are often confounded in the 
dictionaries. Phdsganon is supposed to be guasi X<f>dyavov, a euphonic transposi- 
tion, like the verb <f>a<Ty<ivet,v (to slay with the Sword). The root is evidently 
S^ay, which appears in a<f>drfr) (slaughter) and in a<f>dyeiv (to slay) : there is also 
a form <f>da\avov for a^dXavov. This is a two-edged leaf-shaped blade (<f>da'yavov 
afi<f>7jKS9):^^ Thrasymedes gives one to Diomede, and with it Rhesus is 
slaughtered in his sleep. The word frequently occurs: black-hilted PhAsgana, 
with massive handles, are mentioned,** and the common Phdsganon is found in 



Fig. a4a— Two 
SDGBD Bronze Sword 

AND AlaDASTRR 

Knob (MvcENiS). 



• xiii. 576. « xxiii. 307. • i. 210, 220. 

• IL i. 190, it is called a Phasganon. 

• ii. 45. • //. xi. 30. 

' Studs, flat-headed, like rivets, are still let into 
the iron blade by modem Africans. 

• iii. 334. • //. xvi. 130. " XX. 475. 



" //. xvi. 335. >« xviii. end. 

*' So Aristophanes {Clouds^ 1065) alludes to the 
Sword forged by Hephaistos and presented to Peleus 
by the gods, as a prize for resisting the temptations of 
Atalanta. 

»* //. X. 256. '» XV. 712-12. 



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224 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

* Odys.' xi. 48 ; in Pindar (N, i. 80), and in the Tragedians. In another passage/ 
however, it becomes a large (jiiya) Phdsganon. 

The fourth term is aop,^ usually set down, like the English * brand,' as poetical ; 
it is not used in Romaic and the Neo-Greek dictionaries ignore it The Aor seems 
to mean a broad, stout, strong blade. With the sharp Aor (aop o^if) drawn from 
his thigh, Ulysses digs the furrow one cubit wide,' and Hector cuts in two the 
ashen spear of Ajax.* Automedon draws a long Aon* This, too, is the weapon 
of earth-shaking Neptune, the * dreadful tapering Sword ' (javvriicss aop)^ * thunder- 
bolt-like, wherewith it is not possible to engage in fatal fight, for the fear of it 
restrains mankind/^ Phoebus Apollo has a golden Aor {^pvadtop)? Here we 
see the vague meaning of the poetic word, like our * hanger,* for it now means the 
god's golden bow and quiver carried on the shoulder. 

Homer's fifth is the Mdxaipa^ hung by a single belt close to the Sword-sheath, 
and used for sacrifices and similar uses. It afterwards became a favourite with 
the Lacedaemonians ; it was then a curved blade, as opposed to the Xiphos or 
uncurved. Again, in Plutarch and other writers, the Machaera seems to mean- 
like Spatha— a long straight blade. Homer does not mention the kottU, but 
Euripides uses it' in conjunction with Machaera. 

We must not expect to see the Sword so frequently drawn in the * Odyssey,' 
which, /face Mr. Sayce, appears later than the * Iliad.' We note in it more character 
and less movement ; more unity and less digression, and, finally, less fighting and 
more amenity and civilisation. But * Othyssefs,' the * man with whom many were 
wroth,' has been a soldier, and he does not forget his old trade. Besides, com- 
merce was still armed barter, and voyaging was enlivened by piracy. Copper, or 
base metal, continues to be the basis of metallurgy, and the hero owns it in quanti- 
ties, besides gold, silver, and electrum. Euryalus tells Alcinous that he will 
appease the guest (Ulysses) with an all-copper brand (aop irarfxaXiceov), 
whose hilt {kcotttj) is silver, and whose scabbard is of newly sawn ivory.*'* 
The suitors would slay Telemachus with the sharp copper." In the final 
struggle, the catastrophe of the poem, Eurymachus, drawing his sharp Sword 
of copper, calls upon his friends to do the same, and to shield themselves with 
the tables against the fast-flying shafts. In the ' Frogs and Mice,' the spear is 
a good long needle ; the * all-copper work of Mars.' *^ 

Wrought iron is prominent in the * Odyssey ' as in the ' Iliad.' Athene- 
Mentes *' sails over the dark sea to Temesa (Temessus) for copper, and also brings 

> Iliad, xxiu. 824. ■ Od, xi. 24. * //. xvi. 115. 

« Sanskritists hold it to have been originally turop, • xvi. 473. • //. xiv. 385. 

, . , . - r> / .» r> ■• 1^ ' In his illustrations of the Jliad, Flaxman rarely 

and to denve from ^itf (asi), a Sword; whence .. -^u.i. e -j •*!. c u. r 

^ • ^ " ' arms his warriors with the Sword, even at the Fight for 

^L ■ Ti r JT / ' M % J /t:.- 1 rsr-. .11 thc Body of Patroclus. It is to be hoped that artists 

^BTTTTV (asik), a swordsman (Fick, Wbrterbuch . r * -n i • ji * i 

^ " > ' ^ ^ " V > ,n future will kindly take warmng. 

der indogermanischen Grundsprache), It is probably ■ //. xv. 256 ; also Hymn to ApollOy 396. 

connected with &€fpw, because 'carried' on the • ^/. 837. '• 0<^j. viii. 401-5. 

shoulder by the bauldric. '• Odys, iv. 69$. " Line 12$. »» Odys, i. 180. 



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THE SWORD IN HOMER, 225 

back shining iron {aldouva ^IStfpov). Menelaus does the same.' The * cruel iron ' 
balances thie * cruel copper/ * The * long-pointed iron,' so fatal to the Trojans, 
is apparently the spear, which began the duels. Prudent Penelope places the 
bow and the grey iron (iroXiov rs aiBtfpov) ready for the suitors ; ' and the 
Palace contains store of wrought iron (iroXv/c/itfro? alBtfposy The axe (iriXeKvi), 
sharpened on both sides,* is of copper ; but the hatchets, through whose rings 
or handle-holes (crretXtt^) the. copper-tipped arrows must be shot, are of iron.® 
' Iron,' we are told, *of itself draws on a man'^ (Tacit * Hist.' i. 80), a sentiment 
repeated elsewhere in the same words.* And the Sword is alluded to in more than 
one place without the material being specified.^ 

In the * Hymn to Hermes,' *^ Mercury the god 'vivisects' the mountain tortoise 
with a scalpel of grey iron (y\v<l>dv^ irokiolo cLhtfpov). The Glyphanus was a 
carving-tool, a chisel, or a knife for reed-pens. 

The dispute whether the so-called Homeric poems were written or were orally 
preserved still awaits sentence. We twice find the word ypd<f>6iVf but its primary 
meaning is *to mark,' 'to cut,' and, lastly, *to write.' Thus Ajax,** when in- 
scribing (iTTt^pdyjrai) the lot, might simply have scraped upon it * Ajax his mark.' 
Yet there is nothing against writing, and there is much in its favour. For 
instance — 

rpo^as iv mvojci ittvkt^ OvfioiffOopa iroAAJ (o^fiaru).'^ 

' Having on tablet writ ' can mean nothing else. Pliny *• accepts this writing 
given to Bellerophon on codicilli or tablets.** Horace, who was not only a 
great poet, but a masterful genius, mentions writing in Homer's day, and makes 
the early inscriptions laws cut into wood (i^ges incidere ligno). Herodotus ** 
tells us that he himself saw Cadmeian (that is, old Phoenician) characters ; and the 
tradition is that Danaus introduced letters from Egypt, which, I repeat, produced 
the one alphabet the world knows. Dr. Schliemann (*Troy,' Appendix by the 
Editor) found at seven and a half metres (twenty-five feet) below the surface of 
the so-called Homeric Troy, many short inscriptions in • ancient Cypriote cha- 
racters,' and as many Greek epigraphs were discovered at Mycenae. Evidently the 
* Iliad ' and the * Odyssey ' might have been cut in rude Phoenician characters upon 
wooden tablets or scratched on plates of lead. Professor Paley would date the 
literary Homer from B.C. 400 ; but that is a different phase of the subject. 

Herodotus is the outcome of Homer, or, if you please, of the Homerids and of 
yEschylus. The work of this prose rhapsodist, besides being a history, a logo- 
graphy, a record of travel, and a study of ethnology and antiquity, is at once an 
Epic and a Drama. It is epic in the heroic and romantic tone ; in the unity of 

• iv. 83^ » X. 535, xxi. 34 and 119, xxii. 329 &c. 

• xi. 520. In Buckley*s translation (Bell. 1878), " Line 40. " //. vii. 187. 
XoXxi^f is mostly translated « steel * (pp. 62, 72, 198). " //. vi. 169. " xiii. 28. 
Translators are almost as misleading as dictionaries. " He also mentions writing on leaden p*ates and 

" xxi. 3. * xxi. 10. » V. 250. on linen cloths as in ancient India ; such, probably, 

• xxi. 127. ' xvi. 295. • xix. 13. were the books of Numa. '* v. 29. 

Q 



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226 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

action, a mighty invasion-campaign ; and in the frequent digressions which aid, 
if they retard, the one primary object It is a tragedy in the scenic displays (the 
review of Xerxes, for instance), in the action of Destiny, the circle of Necessity, 
the Nemesiac hypothesis, and the jealousy of the gods {Deus ultor) ; while the 
catastrophe is represented in * Calliope * by the destruction of the Persian host, the 
home-return of the victors, and the lurid scenes at the close. It ends with an epi- 
gram, a kind of Vos plaudite : • The Persians . . . chose rather to dwell in a 
churlish land and exercise lordship, than to plough the plains and be slaves of 
other men ' — a sentiment which would * bring down the house ' in the Highlands. 
All is written with a distinct purpose, and the sensible chronology is derived from 
Egypt There is something poetical, too, in the enormous numbers. The magni- 
ficent-impossible host of five millions two hundred and eighty-three thousand Vmo 
hundred and twenty men,' and the one thousand three hundred and tivienty- 
seven triremes to be defeated and destroyed by a handful of nine tflousand 
Greeks and three hundred and seventy-eight ships, is highly imagiiMtive. The 
philosophic and sceptical modern mind will hardly be satisfied titi the details are 
confirmed by the contemporary evidence of inscriptions, for instance, the Behistun, 
which is a running commentary upon * Thalia.' Hellas ever was, and is, and will 
be, by virtue of her mighty intellect and her preponderating imagination, * Graecia 
mendax.' Eastern history tells us nothing about the marvellous Persian invasion. 
We may fairly believe that there was a great movement headed by some powerful 
Satrap,* who determined to crush the wasp's nest to the West ; but we can go no 
farther. It is simply incredible that the Great King, who at the time was Lord 
Paramount of the civilised world, should lead to so little purpose millions of 
warriors — men, the flower of Asia, whose portraiture is the most favourable of 
any we possess, and whom the Father owns to have been not a whit inferior in 
prowess to the Greeks.' And for this view I duly apologise to * Herodotus and his 
shade.' 

The poet-historian gives an interesting description of the Sword amongst the 
Scythians whom the Greeks and Persians call Sacae (Shakas) or Nomades.^ 
To judge from Hindu legend — for instance, that of Shak-ari, 'foe to the Shakas,* 
a title of the historical Vikramiditya (a.D. 79) — the Sacae were * Turanians ' — 
Mongols or Tartars. When he makes them worship Ares-Mars, he probably 
derives the idea from their adoring the emblem of war, an iron dirk (aKivatcrfs 
aiBnpBOf^ * A blade of antique iron,' he tells us, * is placed on the summit of 
every such mound (a flat-topped pile of brushwood three furlongs square), and 
serves as the image of Mars ; yearly sacrifices are made to it' The victims were 
cattle, horses, and one per cent of war-prisoners. * Libations of wine are first 

' vii. 186. even engaged in foreign wars without orders of the 

« From Ksha!ram (crown, reign) and — /J (de- Great King (Herod, iv. 165-7; Thucyd. i. 115 &c.). 

fender). These viceroys of Asia Minor, who some- . . ^ ^ •• ^ 

' . ,. ' . J J J ■ IX. 62. * viL 64. 

limes held more than one provmce, received and de- 

^patched embassie5, levied armies of mercenaries, and » Grote, History of Greece^ iii. 323. 



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THE SWORD IN HERODOTUS, 227 

poured upon their heads, after which they are slaughtered over a vase, and the 
vessel is then carried up to the top of the pile and the blood poured upon the 
Akinikes.* * In the Scythian graves of Russian Cimmeria (the Crimea) and of 
Tartary, the Swords are mostly bronze. Dr. MTherson, however, found one of 
iron (1839) in the great tomb of Kertch, the old Milesian Panticapaeum, so called 
from its river, Anticapes ; ^ it was a short dagger-like thrusting blade, resembling 
the old Persian, with mid-rib and curved handle. In the days of Attila, a Sword, 
supposed to be one of the ancient Scythian weapons alluded to by the Greek, was 
accidentally found, and was made an object of worship.' Janghfz (Genghis) Khan 
when raised to the throne repeated this sacrificial observance, which, however, can 
scarcely be called a ' Mongolic custom.' * It seems common to the Sauromatae 
(northern Medes and Slavs), the Alans, the Huns, and the tribes that wandered 
over the Steppes. 

The Scythians also swore by the emblem of Mars. 'Their oaths,' says 
Herodotus,* 'are accompanied by the following ceremonies. Into a large 
earthen bowl {icvki^) pouring wine, they mingle with it blood of the parties to the 
oath, who wound themselves superficially with a knife or an awl ; then they dip 
into the bowl an Akindkcs, and arrows, and a battle-axe (sag-arts), and a javelin 
{akontion), all the while repeating manifold prayers. Lastly, the two contracting 
parties drink each a draught from the bowl, as do also the most worthy of their 
followers.' * In the * Anabasis,' ' the Greeks swear by dipping a Sword, and the 
barbarians a lance, into the victim's blood. 

So far these ancient authors : we must now see how they are confirmed by 
modern authorities. Dr. Schliemann's investigations at Mycenae ' are the more 
interesting, as the finds are supposed by him to be synchronous with those of 
Burnt Troy ; and they enable us to compare the former in her prosperity with the 
latter in her exhaustion. The energetic explorer doughtily supports the use of 
copper for arms and utensils ; and, with whole truth, makes it the staple metal of 
the heroic ages. As he found no tin at Mycenae or in the great layer of copper 
scoriae at Hisdrlik (Troy), while * Kassiteros ' is repeatedly mentioned by Homer, 
he contends that the bronze of the Greek city was imported, and therefore rare and 

* This word is erroneously translated 'Scyinitar/ and emeralds. Herodotus' description of the scalp- 

a weapon which, in its present shape, dates from ing {kwotricvBlitiv, iv. 64) would apply to the North 

about the rise of El-Islam. American * Indians ' of our day ; and the sending a 

•> Rawlinson's Herodotus, 60. The learned com- messenger to Zalmoxis, god of the Get£ (iv. 94), is the 

mentator quotes Miiller, Hist, Grtrc, (iv. 429), Amm. practice of modem Dahome and Benin. 
Marcellinus (xxxi. 2),Jomandes(Z>^^^^. Getias, csip, ' Rawlinson, iii. 54. 

XXXV.), Niebuhr's Scythia (p. 46, E. Tr.), &c. In * * Mongol ' denotes an especial race the word is 

vol. iii. 60, he gives a ground-plan of the tomb, much abused by non-Orientalists, 
whose chief place also yielded a gold shield, a whip, * iv. 7a 

a bow, a bow-case, five statuettes, and an iron Sword. * This process of * mixing bloods,' as a token of 

The space by the side contained a woman's bones, brotherhood, is familiar to all travellers in pagan 

with a diadem and ornaments in gold and electrum. Africa. ' iL 2. 

Other barrows in Russia and Tartary showed bodies * Afycena, 6r*c, (London : Murray, 1878). It is 

resting upon sheets of pure gold weighing forty pounds, regretable that this handsome and expensive volume 

with bronze weapons and ornaments set with rubies should be printed upon blotting paper. 

Q 2 



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228 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



expensive. Unfortunately he did not analyse the thin copper wire which carried 
the necklace-beads. 

It is a new sensation to descend with Dr. Schliemann into the old Mycenian 
tombs where sixteen or seventeen corpses had been simultaneously interred (J). 
Sepulchre No. i, attributed to Agamemnon and his two heralds,* produced 
a variety of interesting articles, especially the golden shoulder-belt (reXa/icSi/) 
that decorated the mummy.^ My photograph shows it attached to a fragmentary 
two-edged Sword. Between the middle and the southern body lay a heap of 
broken bronze blades, which may have represented sixty whole Swords : some 

bore traces of gilding, and several 
had gold pins at the handle. Two 
blades lay to the right of the body, 
and their ornamentation strikingly 
resembled the description in the 
* Iliad.* » The handle of the larger 
Sword (No. 460) is of bronze, 
thickly plated with intaglio'd gold ; 
and a broad plate of the same 
metal, similarly worked, passes round 
the shoulders of the Sword. The 
wooden scabbard must have been 
adorned with golden studs and a long 
broad plate (fig. 244), shaped some- 
what like a man, with a ring issuing 
from the neck. The other Sword 
in a similar style of art seems to 
have been even richer. Dr. Schlie- 
mann * considers No. 463 (fig. 245) a 
remarkable battle-axe, of which four- 
teen were found in the * Trojan 
treasure.* * It is evidently a Sword- 
blade, and the same may be said of Nos. 464, 465 (fig. 244). 

At the distance of hardly more than one foot to the right of the mummy-body 
were found eleven bronze Swords ; two were tolerably preserved, and both were of 
unusual size — two feet ten inches and three feet two inches. The golden plate of the 
wooden Sword-handle is given in p. 305. These weapons, also, had gold plat& 
attached to the pommels by twelve pins of the same metal with large globular heads. 
The body at the south end of Sepulchre I. was provided with fifteen bronze 
Swords, of which ten had been placed at its feet. As a rule, the wooden sheaths 
had mouldered away, but the gold studs or bosses, which adorned them like the 




Fig. 341.- 



-Gold Shoulder-Belt, with Fragment or Two- 
Edged Bronze Racier. (Sepulchre I.) 



> //. i. 320. 
■ ix, 29-31. 



* These illustrations are from photographs l)Ought at Athens. 

* P. 307. » 7>ry, 330-31. 



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THE SWORDS OF MYCENAE. 



229 



binding of a book, lay along the remains of the warriors who had wielded them 

The whetstone (Sepulchre I.) was of very fine sandstone. 

The fourth Sepulchre was almost as interesting in its supply of Swords. Ex- 
cavating from east to west, the explorer came upon a heap 
of more than twenty bronze blades, most of them with 
remnants of wooden scabbards and handles. The flat, round 
pieces of wood, and the small shield-like or button-like, disks 
of gold with intaglio-work, seemed to have been glued in un- 
broken series along both sides of the sheath ; and, the largest 
being at the broad end with a gradual diminishing in size, 




Fig. 3ja. Fig. 243.— A Long 

(Sepukhre I. Myceiue.) Gold Platb. 



Fig. 944. 
Not Battlb%\xes. 



Fig. 945.— Sword Bladbs. 
(Sepulchre 1. Myceiue.) 



they determined the width. The wooden hilts bore similar plates of intaglio'd 
gold ; the remaining space had been studded with gold pins, and gold nails were 
fixed in the large pommels of wood or alabaster. The quantity of fine gold- 
dust left no doubt that the handles and scabbards had been gilt. The smith 
evidently did not possess the knowledge of gilding silver: he first plated the 
metal with copper and then the copper with gold. The golden cylinder (No. 
366), adorned at both ends with a broad border of wave-lines, and the field filled 
with interwoven spirals, all intaglio-work, probably belonged to a heft of wood. 
Along the middle runs a row of pin-holes ; there are four flat pin-heads, and in 
the centre is the head of a larger stud by which it is attached. 



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230 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



Sepulchre IV. also yielded forty-six teooze Swords, more or less fragmentary. 
Of these ten were short and single-edged : their solid metal measured when entire 
from two to two feet three inches in length. The handles «ie too thick for mount- 
ing in wood, and the tangs end in rings for suspension to the *TeluM»'43ir to the 
girdle (5<»iai;, ^axrrijp). ^The chopper-shaped blade( fig. 246), evidently of E gypdui 
derivation, is broken at the point, which may incline either way, probably inwards. 
The other (fig. 246) is the normal leaf-shape. Dr. Schliemann believes * that they 
explain the Homeric (fxiayapov, which he makes 'perfectly synonymous with 




m 







Fig. 346. 
(Sepulchre IV. Mycenae, p. a79-) 



Fig. 847.— Bronzb Fig. a48.— Two-Edged Bronzb Sword 

Lancbhsad (0, p. 279. AND Daggsr. (Sepulchre IV. Myoexue.) 



Xiphos and Aor.' Here I venture to differ with him, holding the Phisganon pro- 
bably to have been the short Egyptian Sword, used like the boomerang-blade for 
throwing as well as cutting. 

The double-edged weapon with the long narrow tube (aiiKoi) was judged to be 
a dagger-knife, the hollow being intended to save weight ; to me it appears a lance- 
head, and the attached ring seems to prove its use (fig. 247). The fragmentary two- 
edged blade of bronze (a fig. 249) shows a mid-rib broken by serrations intended 
either for ornament or for jagging the wound : the same toothings appear in another 
weapon (b fig. 249), which is supposed to be a dagger. No. 446 is a short two-edged 

' P. 279. 



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THE SWORDS OF MYCEN^. 



231 



blade showing at the shoulders, on either side, four large flat head-pins of gold. A 
gold plate extends all along the middle part of the blade on both sides, and frag- 
ments of the wooden sheath are visible in the middle as well as at the end. 

We now come to the most startling part of the collection. It proves indubit- 
ably, if Dr. Schliemann's conclusions be correct, and if the blades * do not belong, 
as they may do, to a later date, that the highest form of Sword, which became the 
fashion during our sixteenth century, was known in B.C. 1 200. It is a curious 
comment upon the fact, how soon perfection was reached in the * White Arm,' com- 
pared with the slow progress of fire-arms, which had to 
await the invention of the self-igniting cartridge. Plate 
No. 445 (p. 281) gives a two-edged blade with a mid- 
rib, in fact the rapier, which can be used only for the point. 
It measures two feet seven inches {a fig. 2 50), and at the top 
are attached remnants of its wooden scabbard. The lower 
end of its neighbour (h fig. 250) is adorned with three flat 
golden pin-heads on either face. No. 448, measuring two 
feet ten inches long, is very well preserved ; by its side 
lies its alabaster pommel (fig. 249). No. 449 has retained 
part' of its heft, which is gold-plated and attached by 
gold pins. Vertical lines of intaglio work run along the 
blade and give it a truly beautiful aspect. 

Dr. Schliemann (p. 283) notices the length, in some 
cases exceeding three feet, compared with the narrowness 
of these grand blades. He adds, ' So far as I know. 
Swords of this shape have never been found before.' I 
would refer him to the Villanova (Etruscan) blade de- 
scribed in chapter viii. 

The fourth Sepulchre also yielded three shoulder- 
belts of gold. No. 354 measures four feet one and a 
half inch long by one and seven-eighths inch in width 
(fig. 241). On either side of the band is a narrow edging 
made by turning down the gold plate : the field is occu- 
pied by a row of rosettes, six oval petals surrounding 

a central disk and the whole encircled by dots or points. At one end are two 
apertures in the shape of hour-glasses ; these served to attach the clasp to the 
other extremity, as is shown by the small hole and two cuts (p. 308). The second 
' Telamon,* a plain band four feet six inches long by two to two and one-third 

' Jahns (pp. 91, 92) cannot but suspect that many as Hymettos, Lykabettos, &c are supposed to be 
the weaooiis which show a marked Oriental cast Carian. The svmbol of their eods was the double- 




Fig. 



._. 349. — Two-Edgkd Bkomzb 
SwoRus AND Alabaster Knob. 
(Sepulchre IV. Mycenie.) 



of the weapons which show a marked Oriental cast 
are not Atreidan but Carian. This tribe about the 
thirteenth century B.C. spread itself, under the my- 
thical king MiDos, over the Mgeam Archipelago, and 
colonised even the seaboard of Greece. Such words 



Carian. The symbol of their gods was the double- 
axe, so common in Mycense ; and, as Thucydides 
said, their practice wa2> to bury weapons with the 
dead, which was not customary in Greece. 



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112 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



inches broad, was, th6 discoverer suggests, possibly made for the funeral : it is too 
thin and fragile for general wear. To some blades were still attached particles of 




Fig. asa— Rapirr-Blades of MvcbnvG. 

well-woven linen, which the discoverer considers to have been sheaths (p. 283). 

The natives of India and of other hot-damp regions retain, I have said, the custom 
of bandaging their blades with greased rags. We are also 
shown (p. 304) a gold tassel probably suspended to a belt of 
embroidered work. 

The first of the tomb-stones found in the Acropolis above 
the sepulchres (p. 52) shows (very imperfectly) a hunter standing 
in a one-horse chariot : he grips in his right a long broad-sword. 
The second tomb-stone (p. 81) has a naked warrior, who holds 
the horse's head with his right, and raises in his left a double- 
edged blade (fig. 251) : Dr. Schliemann finds the figure * full of 

anguish ' (p. 84) ; the head is in profile, and the body almost fronts the spectator. The 




Fic. 25X.— Warrior 
WITH Sword. 



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THE SWORDS OP MYCEN^. 



233 



I 



huntsman-charioteer hiolds in his left a sheathed Sword of the long dagger iype, 
ending in a large globular pommel. Many such articles were found in the tombs, 
and the author (p. 225) draws attention to the size of the *knob ' upon the signet 
ring. Mostly they were of wood or alabaster (p. 281) with golden nails, and fre- 
quently plated with precious metal. I would suggest that the perforated ball of 
polished rock-crystal (No. 307) found in Sepulchre III., and the large-mouthed 
article (No. 308) coloured red and white inside, were also Sword-pommels. 

The Treasury supplied * five unomamental blades of copper or bronze,' with 
rings of the same metal. The large Cyclopean house, which the energetic dis- 
coverer would identify with the Palace of the Atreidae, yielded a straight, two- 
edged, thrusting-bladc of bronze : the shoulders 
were pierced with four holes, and there are as 
many in the tang for attaching the handle (fig. 252). 
The heft was of various substances, wood, bone, 
and ivory, amber, rock-crystal, and alabaster, and it 
was often plated with metals, especially the most 
precious. Of the latter, six specimens are given 
(pp. 270-71), all highly decorated with intaglio 
work of circles and spirals, rope-bands, and shell- 
like quaquaversal flutings. 

The general opinion that Homer ignored 
soldering ' gives unusual interest to a large bronze 
dagger found in No. III. Sepulchre, six metres 
and a half below the surface (p. 164). Two blades 
are well soldered together in the middle (fig. 253). 
The same art appears (p. 280) in the attachment of 
two long narrow plates of thick bronze. Crickets 
{cicad(B) and other ornaments were also found of 
gold worked in repoussi and composed of two 
halves soldered together. 

The goldsmiths of Mycenae were true artists. 
They had work in plenty ; Dr. Schliemann estimates the metallic value of his 
finds at five thousand pounds. An admirable bit of work (p. 251) is the goat 
standing, like that of Assyria and Istria, with gathered legs upon the top of a 
pin.* Another (No. 365) is the lion-cub, apparently cut and tooled. As in modern 
India, the circles, spirals, and wave-lines are excellently executed, and so is the 
gold-plating upon buttons of wood (pp. 258-59). The old Greek city, too, had 
a peculiar treatment of the whorl, which, combining two and even three — either 
dexirorsum or sinistrorsum — about a common centre, and making the lines of at 




V 



u 



Fig, 



259. — Brovzb 
Sword foukd in thb 
Palacb (p. Z44). 



Fig. 953. — Bronze 
Dagger. Two 

Blades Soldered. 



* Yet soUlering iron was known to Egypt in 
the Eighteen h Dynasty. 

' The position may be seen in life all over India, 



where the jugglers teach goats to stand and be hoisted 
in that position. 



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2)4 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

least two continuous, deserves to be called the * Mycenae spiral/ This ornament 
passes from the gold trinkets and the tomb-stones of the Acropolis to the 

• Treasuries * of much later date. 

An intaglio of gold is especially interesting, because it represents a Mono- 
machia or duel. He to the proper right, a tall beardless or shaven warrior, without 
helmet, and clad only in * tights * and * shorts,* bears the whole weight of his body 
upon his left leg, extending the right, as in a lunge, and is about to plunge his 
straight and pointed dagger-blade into the throat of his bearded foe (p. 174). A 
signet-ring displays a gigantic warrior who has felled one opponent, put to flight 
a second, and is stabbing a third with a short broad straight blade. The van- 
quished man attempts to defend himself with a long Xiphos (p. 225). Perhaps the 
subject may be Theseus clearing out the thieves. A gold button shows a square 
formed by four sacrificial chopper-knives of Egyptian shape (p. 263, No. 397). 

The characteristics of the Sepulchres are the orientation of the remains, the 
heads lying to the East, and their imperfect cremation. The latter is familiar in 
Hindu-land, although the people hold the fire-funeral to be a fire-birth, when the 
vital principle called ' soul * or * spirit ' has been purged of its earthly dross. The 
regfular layers of pebbles, which by ventilating the floor would give draught to the 
flames, have also been noticed in ancient Etruria.' The only viaticum or provi- 
sions for the dead were unopened oysters : the rest was probably burnt The 
utensils are jugs and vases of terra cotta (plain and painted), copper tripods and 
cauldrons, urns and kettles, and cups and goblets, the latter one- and two-handed. 
The ornaments, of gold and electrum, are foil-work and plates upon wood, beads of 
glass and agate, studs and buttons, crosses and breast-covers, lentoid gems and masks, 
crowns and diadems. The weapons, all of bronze,* are axes and arrows, lances, 
knives, daggers, and Sword-blades ; while gold and alloys are abundant. We may 
fairly say that iron is absent from the Acropolis of Mycenae as well as from the 
Burnt City of the Troad. And there is a remarkable similarity in the pattern and 
construction of sundry articles, especially the gold tubes with attached spirals. 

Dr. Schliemann's discoveries have been subjected to much adverse criticism.* 
As far as they go, they prove that the warriors of Mycenae used three varieties of 
Swords — the Xiphos, the Phdsganon, and the Kopis. 

» The Etruscans, howerer, like the Jews, disposed many clever and worthy people took it into their 

the feet of the corpse eastward, as told in Etruscan heads to i-peak well of me.' 

Bologna (p. 22). Although the author should not * See * Analysis of Mycenaean Metals * (pp. 367- 
say so, the public has not done wisely to neglect this 376, Mycena. Bit the book is almost as self-contra- 
book ; its most valuable part, the osteological detaib dictory as Troy, 

of the Etruscan, deserved a better fate and, perhaps, ■ For instance, by Mr. W. J. Stillman, a traveller 

secured a failure. Yet it had the prime advantage of and a scholar. In the New York Nation (August 18) 

angry abuse by a certain critical journal, whose predi- he writes on * The True Age of the Mykenx Finds * ; 

lection for the commonplace {qud commonplace) is and, alter a frrsh examination, he declares the objects 

expressed by vituperation of all that is not common- post-classical, < probably representing the burial-place 

place. In my case I may say of it with Diderot : of a colony of Celts between the fifth and the second 

* Perhaps they do me more credit than I deserve ; I century R.C.' What chiefly militates against this 
should feel humiliated if those who speak ill of so theory is the cremation of the human remains. 



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THE SWORD IN GREECE, 



235 



The ^1^9 of Mycenae is the long, straight, rapier-shaped, cut-and-thrust {ccesim 
et punctim) blade ; its only guard is a cross-bar, which, like the scabbard, is beauti- 
fully ornamented. The word Xiphos is still applied in Romaic to a straight Sword 
opposed to Spati (STrar*),* the sabre, the broadsword. 

The <l>€uryapop or dirk which Meyrick (PL IV- 6g. 16), m^ sometimes perhaps 
tie AadttBt^ oamtammi wiA IIk X^Aob, ^ a straight blade, mostly leaf-shaped 
and showing its descent from the spear. It is rarely longer than twenty inches. 
In Romaic poetry the word is still applied to knives and Sword-daggers like the 
Yataghan. My idea that the Phisganon was used for throwing does not derive from 
the classics, but from the similarity of the blade to the Seax and the Scramasax. 

The KoirU, which Meyrick makes an Argive weapon, and which English 




Fig. 954.— PHXsGAMOir. 



Fic 255.— Grbex PhXscana. 



Fig. 956.— Short Sword (PhXsganon) 
OP Bronze, found in a Crannog at 
Pbschiara, and probably Grkbk. 



translators render simply by * Sword/ has been derived by me from the Egyptian 
Khopsh, whose ' inside cutting curve * it imitates, merely flattening the bend 
Writers on hoplology have mostly ignored its origin* They follow Xeno- 
phon, who speaks of it as being used by the Persians and Barbarians ; and 
Polybius, who assigns its use to the Persians before the Greeks — apparently an 
anachronism. They remark that on vases it is the weapon of the Giants, not of the 



> Dictionaries derive this word from mrdat (to 
draw). I find it in the Egyptian *Sft.* It is evi- 
dently a congener of 2t^ (dim. <nrd0Mr, also 
Romaic, and verb <nta$du^l wield (the weapon). 
Spdthe means primarily a broad blade of wood or 
metal ; secondarily a weaver*s spatel or spaddle, a 
spatula (Latin fe/a) ; an oar-blade, a scraper (for 
horse-currying), and a broadsword. Scotchmen still 
apply «spathe' to the weaver's lath {Tkt Fast 
in the Present, p. 11), which preceded the *pecten.' 
It is also used for Carnifex in TertuUian {De 
Cult. Fern. cap. xiii.), and in botany for a shoot 
of fruct fication. In Anglo-Saxon it became S^ ; 



Icelandic Spadi^ our spade. The Latins (Tacit 
Ann. xii. 35 ; Vegct De Re Mil, ii. 15) con- 
verted it to spatha ; and hence the neo-Latin esp^e 
and ^4f, espetda and spada^ from which we derive 
our (suit of) < spades.' See the play of words upon 
* Metal de Espadas' in Camoens* * Rejected Stanzas' 
(canto iv. vol. ii. p. 437 of my translation). It 
has been subjected to other corruptions ; and in 
Chaucer (JCnightes T. 1662) <Sparth' is a battle- 
axe: — 

* He hath a sparth of twenti pound of wighte. ' 
Even the learned Major Jahns derives * Spaiha ' from 
'Spatel.' 



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236 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



Gods, and that the Amazons wield it against Hercules. Hence Sefior Soromenho ' 
would assign its origin to the Arabs, and Colonel A. Lane-Fox to the Roman legion- 
aries. The latter authority, indeed, contends that its form is ' obviously derived 
from the straight, leaf-shaped,, bronze sword, of which it is simply a curved variety.' 
Here, I think, he reverses the process. Specimens of the Kopis are rare ; one 
was found in a tomb, said to be Roman, between Madrid and Toledo, and another 
of the same find is in the British Museum* 

The peculiarity of the Kopis is, I have said, its cutting with the inner, not the 
outer curve, and thus suggesting the use of the point and the * drawing cut ' instead 
of the sheer cut This peculiarity was inherited from Egypt, and long appeared 
in Greek blades. It is well shown in the fragment of. a bronze Kopis-like broad- 
sword from the collection of Don Giovanni Bolmarcich, the Arciprete of Cherso : 





Fig. 957- 



Fig. 858.— Kopw 
with pommeu 



Fig. 959.— Kopis 
WITH Hook. 



Fig. 96a— Kukkri Blaob 
OP Gurkhas. 



the relic was found in the Island of Ossero with an immense variety of bronzes, 
Greek,* Roman, and prehistoric or protohistoric. General Pitt-Rivers has a bronze 
Sword-blade from Corinth — a very fine specimen. The handle has an H section, 
the pommel measuring two and a quarter inches across, and the grip three and a 
half inches in length. There is no tang ; the blade springs from the shoulders, 
which are prominent ;. the length is twenty-seven inches, and the section that of 
the Toledo rapier. It is, however, slightly leaf-shaped. In the Armeria Real of 
Turin (section Beaumont to north-west), two Greek blades are shown in a glass 
case. One is especially interesting. The total length, all being in one piece, is 
three feet and a half ; the blade has a mid-rib ; there is a straight simple cross-bar 
at the shoulders, and the hilt ends in a crutch, like the Hindii antelope-horns and 
the scroll-hilt of the Danish Swords. 



» Quoted 
Coll. p. 174. 



by Colonel A. Lane-Fox, Anthrop, 
* I have described it in Scoptrtc Antropologiche 



in Ossero (Trieste, 1877). 
broken off. 



The point is evidently 



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^ 



THE SWORD IN GREECE, .257 

The inside edge has been preserved from days immemorial by the Abyssinian 
Sword ; * an exaggerated sickle or diminutive scythe. It reappears in various 
parts of Africa, as shown by Earth's Travels (chap. ii. 37 &c.). His * Danfsko/ 
which he translates * hand-bill/ is used by the people of a highly 
interesting province — 'Adamdwa.* The general weapon in the 
neighbourhood is the 'gbliyo* or bill-hook of the Marghi, and the 
Njiga of the Baghirmi. It is a heavy and clumsy *Khopsh* of 
the boomerang type.* 

The inside edge characterises, to a certain extent, the Albanian 
yataghan, and the Flissa of the Kabdil (Kabyles) ; and it is thoroughly 
well developed in the formidable Kord or Kukkri of the Gurkha or THB^DA^^feKo. 
Nepaulese mountaineers, whose edge swells out to a half-moon. 

The Mycenae finds do not enlighten us upon the subject of the *'Aop and other 
ibrms of the Greek Sword. We know nothing of the Thracian 'Po/i^a/a, the 
Rumpia of Gellius (x. 25), which the A.V.* translates * Sword.* Most writers hold 
it to be a Thracian lance, like the European * partisan ; * and Smith's * Dictionary 
of Antiquities * describes it as a long spear resembling the Sarissa, with a Sword- 
like blade. This comes from Livy (xxxi. 39), who tells us that in woodlands the 
Macedonian phalanx was ineffectual on account of its prcelongce hastce^ and that 
the Rhomphaea of the Thracians was a hindrance for the same reason. But in 
modem Romaic usage it denotes the flammberg {flamberge\ or that form of the 
wavy blade which the Church places in the hands of the angelic host. It is always 
carried by * Monseigneur Saint Michel, the Archangel, the first knight who in the 
quarrel of God battled with the Dragon, the old enemy of mankind, and drove him 
out of heaven.' * Mycenae supplied no specimen of the ;^g\t8ft)i/ {gladtus Cheli- 
donius\ the broad blade with a bifurcated swallow-tailed point It is mentioned 
by Isidore (xviii.) and by Origen (chap, vi.) ; and I have alluded to it in Chapter 
VI I. We are unable to specify the shape of the Athenian Kw/ctt^a^ {Knesteis) 
or the Lacedaemonian ^vlvat {Xyin(e\ which Xenophon calls ^vrjkav {Xuelce). 
They may have been, to judge from their use, thick cut-and-thrust daggers, in fact 
Coupe-Choux. Nor do we know what kind of blade was carried by the Xystophori 
(J^v<TTo<f>6poL) in addition to the Xyston : the latter was either the footman's spear 
(^Bopv) or the horseman's lance ; in the * Iliad,' as has been seen, it is a longpole 
studded with iron nails. 

According to history, the Greek infantry Sword was a straight two-edged 
blade, rather broad, and of equal width from hilt to point, which was of bevelled 
shape. For cavalry they preferred the sabre or cutting weapon.' Iphicrates (B.C. 
400), when improving arms and armour, must have found spear and Sword too 
short, for he * doubled the length of the spear and made the Swords also longer * 

* See chap. viii. * Here we find St. Michael a heavenly archetype 

* See chap. iii. The Danisko is ihe hatchet- of St. George. In the vault of the Superga, Turin, 
yataghan of Demmin, p. 397. Monseigneur carries a rapier instead of a flamberge. 

■ Gen. iiL 24 ; Zech. xiii. 7 ; Apocalyp. i. * Xenophon, De He Eq. xii. 11. 



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238 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



(Diod. Sic. XV. 144 ; Com. Nepos, xL). Plutarch (in * Lycurg.') tells us that a 
man in the presence of Agesilaus jeered at the Spartan blade, which measured 

only fourteen to fifteen inches long, saying that a 
juggler would think nothing of swallowing it ' ; ' 
whereto the great commander replied, * Yet our short 
Swords can pierce our foes.* And when a bad work- 
man complained of his tool, the Spartan suggested 
with dry heroism, ' You have only to advance a pace.* 
DodwelP relates that an iron blade found in a 
tomb at Athens was two feet five inches long, in- 
cluding its handle of the same metal. Most of our 
museum specimens, both of bronze and iron, are of 
fair average dimensions. That of Mayence measures 
nineteen and a half inches {a fig. 265), and that of the 




Fig. a6a.- Grbbk XirMOS OJ^ns)- 



puaif - 





Fic «63.— Gallo- 
Grbbk (60 cents, long). 



Fig. 364. 
Gallon RJKBK. 



Fig. 965. 
Maybncb Bladb. 



Fig. 966.— Gallo-Grbbk Bladb 
AND Shbatk. 



Museum of Artillery thirty-two. The Pella blade in the K. Antiquarium, Berlin, 
is only twenty-one centimetres, including four for the heft 

The Swords called Gallo-Greek,* with bronze blades and sheaths (figs. 263, etc.). 



> A world-wide juggling trick, which seems to 
have orii;inated in Egypt. In Apuleius {Golden Ass, 
lib. i. ) a circulator or itinerant juggler swallows a very 
sharp two^ged cavalry broadsword and buries in his 
entrails a horseman's spear. This * Thracian Magic ' 
is still practised by the well-known Rafai Dervishes. 

* He figures the blade in his Tour (i. p. 443). 



' Galatians, Keltic Gauls, who established them- 
selves in Western Asia Minor after the destruction of 
their leader Brennus at Delphi (B.c. 279). Florus 
(ii. 10) calls the Gallo-Gr<ecians ' adulterated relics 
of Gauls ' : Strabo also alludes to the Phrygians and 
the three Galatian peoples (iv. i). As Ammian. Mar- 
cell. tells us (xv. cap. ix. ), * Galatae is the Greek trans- 



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THE SWORD IN GREECE. 



239 



are of moderate length — twenty-five inches. Pausanias ' alludes to perhaps a 
shoftfr weapon (rat* yjixatpais r&v FaXaTcSi/). And we are told that when Manlius 
invaded Galatia he found the Swords vf^x^ prcelongi ghdii? 

The Greek fashion of carrying the Sword apparently varied with the times, 
and, perhaps, with the length of the weapon : it is easy to draw a dagger from 
the right, but awkward to unsheathe a full-sized blade. Some writers make the 
Greeks carry the weapon on the right, and others on the left : Homer seems pur- 
posely to leave his description vague, e.g. : — 

*H oyc ^acryavov o^ ipv<r<rdfi€vo^ (or <nra<r(raftcvos) irapa firfpov. 
Drawing the grided dirk fro' the sheath which hung by his thigh-side.* 

The words pard merou are similarly used elsewhere,* but which thigh is not speci- 
fied. Hector's sharp Sword hangs below his loins both huge and strong, and 
brandishing it he rushes to his death by Achilles' spear.* The 
Trojan, too, strikes Ajax,^ who carried his weapon after Assyrian 
fashion, * where the two belts cross upon his breast, both that 
of the shield and that of the silver-studded Sword.' The 
' Parazonium ' dagger, with its metal scabbard, was usually 
attached to the Sword-belt^ on the other side. Shaped like 
an ox-tongue (*Anelace,* or Langue-de-bceuf)^ and measuring 
twelve to sixteen inches long, it was common to Greece and 
Rome ; I have shown its origin in Egypt. 

The part played by the Hellenes upon the great stage 
of the world's history was their development of civil life— of 
citizenship. As a nation, they wanted the life-long practice 
of arms and training for warfare, brought to absolute perfec- 
tion by the Romans. Their annual games, as shown by the 
Pindaric Odes, were mostly trials of speed and agility. 
They had the Bibasis or gymnastic dance, and, to mention no other, the Pyrrhic 
or Sword-dance, like all ancient and many modem peoples; but these mimic- 
ries soon became in the cities mere women's work. They wore side-arms 
at home only during the Panathenaic f^tes, where orchestral actions and attitudes 
were displayed ; and they had not those military colonies like the Romans, 
where every man was a soldier and every soldier was a veteran. Their gymnasia 
and palcBstrcB were schools for calisthenics, which the sturdier Italians held in 




Fig. 967.— Bronze Para- 
zoNitM (i6| inches 
long). 



lation of the Roman term Galli.' They consisted 
of three tribes, each with its capital : the Tolis- 
tobogii (BTolo!'a+ Boil) at Pessinus ; the Tectosages 
(of Aquitaine) at Ancyra, now Ang^ora, famous for 
wool and cats ; and the Trocmi, with Tavium for 
principal city, lay to the east bordering on Pontus. 
This people, like the Gauls, their kinsmen, was * ad- 
modum dedita religionibus * (Ces. B. G. vi. 16). 
* X. 3a. ' Livy, xxxviii. c 17^ 



■ IL i. 19a * //. xvi. 437. 

» // xxii. 310-60. • //. xiv. 405. 

' In the Uiad (iv. 185) we Bnd the C»<rn|/> and the 
(wAM different. Menelaus wears the former outside, 
the Sword below it, and a fJrpa or metal plate on the 
breast. The dattt^p was proliably a broad girdle 
strengthened with metal, and considered part of the 
SirXa : thus C^^^ryv^ai, to 'gird one's loins,' is to 
prepare for battle. 



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240 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



contempt. They were, like the gymnastic-grounds of the Spartan girls, mere hot* 
beds for growing'beauty and good breeders; for attaining the perfection of form 
duly to be transmitted. This process, indeed, began with the bride, who furnished 
her nuptial chamber with the finest possible models in painting and statuary. 
Hence ^\^ well-bred citizen at Athens, every 'gentleman,' was expected to 
be handsome. The Beautiful, the Good, and the Holy grew to be almost 
synonymous. Physical man was raised to his highest expression, till he became 
the mythological, ideal god-man. This anthropomorphism found its final stage in 
Phidias ; the Parthenon was its expression, and Olympus its culmination.' Since 
the ancient man-breeding and man-shaping system was abandoned, and the race 
became intimately mixed with foreign blood, chiefly Slav and Hebrew, the reverse 
has become noticeable : a Greek of the classical type is now rarely seen. 





Fig. a68.— 'Hoplites' (Hkavy Armed).* 



Fig. 269.— Grbek Combatants with Sword and Lanxe. 



Then came the intellectual age of Greece. Already in B.C. 450 Protagoras the 
Sophist, of the Cyrenaic school, had made * man the measure of all things.* The 
individual becomes a duality ; as Aristotle expresses it, the animal life is one of 
sensation, the divine life of intelligence. And this change of view gradually extin- 
guished the holy fire of art. 

The Hellenes, even in their best times, did not pay that attention to the use of 
arms which was a daily practice with the more practical Romans. They had no 
•gladiatorial shows, the finest salles d'armes in the world. The oirXohihaicTaX 
(o7rXoS*Sacr^oXol) or army mattres d*armes^ and professors of the noble arts of 
offence and defence, were not required by law in Lacedaemon. They practised 
the Sword, as we learn from Demosthenes ; he compared the Athenians 
* with rustics in a fencing school, who after a blow always guard the hit part 
and not before.*' Yet they preferred the pentathlum, the pancration, and 
military dancing ; the fencing-room was a secondary consideration. Indeed, 
Plato objected to the useless art of Sword -exercise, because neither masters nor 
disciples ever became great soldiers — a stupendous Platonic fallacy ! * 



» Doubtless Pythagoras and Socrates were mono* 
theists after the fashion of the Egyptian jn-iests ; but 
the Olympus of the many- headed was peopled by a 
'eharroing bevy of coquins and coquiius, 

* From the treatise of M. Rodios, Eni nOAE- 



MIKH2 TEXNH2 (Athens, 1 868) ; the soldier wears 
an Etruscan helmet, and the pelta shield resembles 
an ivy leaf. * Philip, i. 

* To name merely the sommith : Alexander the 
Gieat, Eumencs, and Ptolemy ; Hannibal ; SulU, 



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THE SWORD IN GREECE. 241 

Nor did Hellas greatly prize herself upon mere arms. The soldier at Athens 
and amongst all the Ionian and kindred races occupied, it is true, an honourable 
position ; in the fout castes * he followed the priestly, and he preceded the 
peasants and the mechanics. But the Hellene was essentially a citizen— a poli- 
tician. He chose his magistrates and pontiffs, and he could aspire to become one 
himself. He spent his life in the Agora, canvassing laws and constitutions, 
treaties and alliances. His minor delight was gossip, euphuistically expressed by 
•hearing new things.' Hellas soon learned that htx forte lay in literature, poetry, 
oratory, and philosophy, in engineering, and in the fine arts. She excelled the 
world in the exquisite rules of proportion ; in the breadth of idea, and in the clear- 
ness and perfection of the literary form : these arts she bequeathed as a heritage 
to mankind, who have nowhere and never surpassed her. While the grand old 
Kemites built for eternity, and subjected even size * to solidity, Hellas elaborated 
the principle of Beauty and carried it to its very acme. Her spoilt children 
were avid of novelty : they constructed every possible system of cosmogony, of 
astronomy, of geology (except the right one) ; and they * paraded their knowledge,* 
as Bacon says, * with fifes and drums.' Hence their teachers of the Nile Valley 
told them *they were ever children' ; and hence they excelled their teachers. 

This is not the place to discuss Greek tactics, nor is there anything new to say 
about them : authors are contented with borrowing from the treatises of ^Elian 
and Arrian, who lived in the days of Hadrian. I will only remind the reader that 
even during the * Iliad '-ages the Greek army had its scheme of battle. Nestor 
advises his warriors to keep their ranks in action after the wont of their 
forbears ; and in two places ' we have allusions to a rude phalanx or oblong 
rectangle of civilised Egypt and Khita-land. Xenophon* tells us that the 
army of Agesilaus appeared all bronze {xoXkov) and red {^^oivi^Ko) \ the latter 
survives in our most inappropriate British scarlet. For the heavy-armed Hoplite- 
swordsmen and the light Peltasts, who had apparently no Swords, the student 
will consult any 'Dictionary of Antiquities.* 

Another unpleasant feature in Greek warfare was its indifference to human life, 
so much regarded by the Romans. The former preserved their old barbarous 
practice of putting to death their war-prisoners ; whilst even during the first Punic 
War the latter had a system of exchange combined with a money-payment for any 
number in excess on either side. 

Fabius, Marius, Sertorius, Cato, Brutus, Julius Caesar, called the Colossus of Rhodes) 105 feet, exceeding 

Mark Antony, Poropey, Metellus Marcellus, Trajan, everything in the Nile Valley. I need not refer to 

and Hadrian. All these commanders were famous Mount Aihos and the Charonion of Antioch. The 

swordsmen, concerning whose personal feats with the oldest known Greek statue is a portrait produced at 

weapon we have ample notices. Miletus in b.c 550, and inscribed : * I am Chares, son 

* The Albanians still preserve the four castes of Kleisis, ruler of Teichiousa, an offering to Apollo. * 

which do not intermarry. These are : Soldiers (or The style of this and other archaic works (vases, &c. ), 

Landowners), Tradesmen, Shepherds, and Artisans. which are rare, connects it with Assyrianism, about 

» Some of the Greek statues were larger than any the age of Assumazirpal (B.C. 880). 
Egyptian. Olympian Jove stood 60 feet, Apollo 45 ■ lliad^ ii. 362 and iv. 297 sq. 

(Pausanias), and the Image of the Sun (commonly * De Ages, 

K 



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242 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

Greece rarely appears in arms except in defensive warfare (as against the 
Persians), in civil wars between citizens and citizens, and in semi-civil wars, as 
between the Athenians and the Spartans, the Dorians, lonians, and ^Eolians. A 
glance at any of their campaigns — the * Anabasis,' for instance— gives us their 
measure as soldiers ; and what else can we expect from a race whose typical men 
were Themistocles and Alcibiades ? They were too clever by half ; too vain, too 
restless, too impulsive (ever ' shedding tears '), too self-assertive to become disci- 
plined men-machines. They were always ready for a revolt, for a change of 
officers ; and it must have been a serious thing to command them. In this point, 
perhaps, they are rivalled by the Frenchman, one of the best soldiers in Europe, 
and also one of the most difficult to manage. Great captains — Turenne and 
Napoleon Buonaparte, for instance — shot their recalcitrants by the dozen till the 
survivors learned to * tremble and obey.* * Like the French, too, and the Irish, the 
Greeks had more dash than firmness. They gained victories by the vigour and 
gallantry of their attack, but they did not distinguish themselves in a losing game. 
Here England excels, and hence Marshal Bugeaud said, * She has the best infantry 
in the world ; happily they are not many.' We must make them so. 

Hellas owed her successes in foreign wars mainly to the barbarous condition of 
her neighbours. The Romans and all the peoples of Asia Minor, save her own 
colonies,' were far behind her when, after the fashion of the equestrian races 
of Northern Asia, she had exchanged the chariot for the charger ; * and when 
she borrowed from Egypt the arts of warfare by land and sea, the paraphernalia 
of the siege, the best of arms and armour, and even the redoubtable phalanx. 
But she lost pre-eminence, physical and moral, when the rival races rose to 
be her equals, and even her superiors, in weapons, organisation, and discipline. 
She began with beating, and she ended with being thoroughly beaten by, the 
Romans. 

Greek literature does not abound, like Roman and Hebrew, in perpetual allu- 
sions to the Sword : it refers more frequently to the spear and bow. Yet Athenaeus 
ennobles the end of his curious olla podrida (the * Deipnosophists *) with some 
charming lines alluding to the Queen of Weapons. The first passage begins 
with: — 

• But whd is to do this under a Republic? And means rather to stroll {fldner) on horseback,* As 
here we foresee troubles for our neighbours in the his English translator remarks, the assertion is 
next Prusso-Gallic War. hardly admissible in the face of such words as Imcthuw 

• For instance, the 'Holy City* of Miletus, with {eqtdtare)^ cavalcarCy to ride the horse; finrcfa 
its 300 dependent towns. When we speak of (riding), /inr«dj and lirK6'n\% (a rider, a knight), and 
ancient Greece we must remember that it extended 4iri$€fiTiK<is, mounted {set/, on horseback). His in- 
from Asia Minor to Sicily, Italy, and even Southern terpretaiion of chcvcuuher is equally erroneous. 
France; and from Egypt to Albania. Modem Chtvaucher^ a fine old word, now only too rare, 
Greece is a mere mutilated trunk. exactly expresses our * to ride * : // chevaucha aux 

• Demmin (p. 106, &c.) tells us that * the Greeks parties d^ Occident^ is quoted from a French MS. (early 
had not even a term to denote the action of riding fourteenth century) by Colonel Yule in his preface to 
on horseback * ; and that * even in French a proper Marco Polo ; and the word occurs twice in the same 
verb does not exist, as the expression chcvaucher sentence with the same sense. 



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THE SWORD IN GREECE. 243 

1 11 wreathe my sword in myrtle bough, 
The sword that laid the tyrant low, 
When Patriots burning to be free 
To Athens gave equality.* 

The second is the song of Hybrias the Cretan : — 

My wealth is here, the sword, the spear, the breast-defending shield, 
With this I plough, with this I sow, with this I reap the field ; 
With this I rape the luscious grape and drink the blood-red wine. 
And slaves at hand in order stand, and all are counted mine ! ^ 

And here arises a curious question. Do races, as is generally assumed, decline 
and fall like nations and empires ? Does the body politic obey the law of the 
body corporal ? Do peoples grow old and feeble and barren after their most bril- 
liant periods of gestation ? Or rather do they not cease to be great, and to bear 
great men, because their neighbours have grown to be greater, and because genius 
is repressed by unfavourable media ? I cannot see that Time has greatly changed 
the peasant of the Romagna, the mountaineer of the Peloponnesus, the Persian 
become a Parsi in Bombay, or the modern soldier of the Nile Valley, who, under 
Ibrahim Pasha, defeated the Turks in every pitched battle. But the conditions of 
Italy, Greece, Persia, and Egypt, are now fundamentally altered : they are no 
longer superior to their surroundings; they are environed by races stronger 
than themselves. Hence, perhaps, what is popularly called their degeneracy. 

* Lord Denman's translation. ' D. K. Sandford. 



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244 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE SWORD IN ANCIENT ROME ; THE LEGION AND THE GLADIATOR. 

The rdle played by pagan Rome on the stage of history was twofold — that of 
conqueror and that of regulator. In obeying man's acquisitive instinct she was 
compelled to perfect her executive instrument, the fighter. To her we owe the 
words ' arms ' and * army/ ' armour * and * armoury.* * As pugna derives from 
pugnusy the fist, so arma and its congeners derive from annus, the arm : ' antiqui 
humeros cum brachiis armos vocabant,* says Festus. Well knowing that the *God 
of Battles * favours superiority of weapons as much as, and in select cases more than, 
*big battalions,' she ever chose the implements and instruments she found the 
best ; and, following her own proverb, she never disdained to take a lesson in arms 
even from the conquered. 

But Rome soon learnt that to make good soldiers she must begin by making 
good citizens. She insisted upon the civilising maxim * Cedant arma togae,' with- 
out, however, the invidious precedence which Sallust calls * those most offensive 
words of Cicero * 

Concedat laurea linguae. 

She subordinated the Captain to the Magistrate, and she proclaimed to both the 
absolute Reign of Law. The idea presented itself to the Greek mind in the shape 
of Fate, Anagk^, Nemesis : Rome brought it down from the vag^e to the realistic, 
from the abstract to the concrete, from heaven to earth. Thus, while Greece 
taught mankind the novel lessons of ordered liberty, free thought, intellectual 
culture, and patriotic citizenship, Rome, by her reverence for Law, in whose sight 
all men were equal, preached the brotherhood of mankind. Hence Christendom 
ever has been, anfe is still, governed by a heathen code, by that Roman jurispru- 
dence which flowed from the Twelve Tables, like the laws of Jewry from the Ten 
Commandments. Indeed the * Fecial College,' which pronounced upon the obliga- 

> * Armour ' is from the Lat. armaiura, through rule. We must also beware of the monuments which 
O. French armeure and armure\ armoire is arma- are apt to idealise and archaicise : this is notable in the 
Hum, originally a place for keeping Arms, and shapeof the helmet, the pilum, and the Sword. Jahns 
armanuntarium is our arsenal. It is not a little specifies as the best place for study the Romano- 
curious that * finds' of Roman weapons are so rare, German Central Museum at 'Mainz,' under Professor 
bearing no proportion to the wide extension of the Dr. Liudenschmit (p. 192). 



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THE SWORD IN ROME. 245 

tions of international war and peace, is an institution which might profitably be 
revived in the modern world.* 

Rome was single-minded in her objective, conquest ; and unlike the Greeks, 
from whom she borrowed, she was not diverted by art or literature. All her poets 
for a thousand years fit into one volume. Her art, indeed, can hardly be said to 
exist ; history is silent concerning any save a few exceptional Roman architects. 
Varro laughs at the puppets and effigies of the gods. The triumph of Metellus 
(b.c 146) introduced Art, but the Helleno-Roman artist contented himself with 
copies and with portrait-statues of the g^eat. In the days of their highest luxury 
and refinement, the toga'd people were connoisseurs and purchasers who diffused 
instead of adding to knowledge. Others, as Virgil said, might give movement to 
marble and breath to bronze : the Art of the Roman was to rule the nations, to 
spare the subjected, and to debase the proud. ' Fortia agere Romanum est' 

For the constitution of the Roman army we must consult the estimable 
Polybius,^ its early historian, Livy, and the latest of the great authorities, Vege- 
tius, in the days of Valentinian II. (A.D. 375-92) ; not forgetting Varro,' who treats 
of weapon changings. 

Whilst the militia consisted of three bodies, the citizens, the allies, who were 
sworn, and the auxiliaries or mercenaries ; the characteristic of Roman organisa- 
tion was the Legion— that is, kgere (they chose). Emerging by slow degrees from 
the Phalanx or close column,* it learnt to prefer for battle the acies instructa^ haye 
or line, and the acies sinttatay with wings ; and it reserved for especial purposes the 
agtnen pilatum or close array, and the agmen quadratum or hollow square. 

The reason of the change is manifest. The Phalanx or oblong herse was irre- 
sistible during the compact advance. The wise Egyptian inventors made it perfect 
for the Nile Valley. But it lost virtue in woodlands and highlands ; it was liable 
to be broken when changing front, and the long unwieldy spears which it required 
caused confusion on broken ground. 

The Legion consisted, strictly speaking, of heavy-armed infantry — of Milites, 
from Mil-es^ because reckoned by their thousands. They were preceded by the 
Velites, Ferentarii, or Rorarii, * light infantry,' iclaireurs^ who cleared the way for 
action ; in the first century they were reinforced by the Accensi Velati.* Whilst 
the Auxiliaries fought with bows and arrows, and some, like the Etruscans, with 
the *funda' or sling, the Veles carried two to seven light throw-spears {hastce 

* In our day the only * Fecialists * are the Moslem ■ De Lingud Lot, iv. 6. 
States. . , . ... o 

* Folybti Hutonarum qua supersunt. The volu- 
minous and luminous writer, a contemporary of • Also called Adscriptii, Supemumerarii, and 
Scipio Africanus, and a captain who witnessed the Velati, because wearing only the sagum or soldier's 
destruction of Carthage, was bom A.U.C. 552 (B.C. cloak, opposed to the officer's paludamtntum, 
204), nearly three centuries after the Latin conquest of Properly speaking, they were rear-troops, ranged in 
Etruria. He was called * Auctor bonus in primis,' battle order behind the Triarii. During certain 
and Scipio said of him, * Nemo fuit in requirendis epochs the Rorarii stood next to the Triarii, and the 
temporibus diligentior' (Cicero, De Off. iii. 12, and Accensi, less trustworthy than either, formed the 
De Hep. \\. 14). extreme rear. 



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246 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 



velitaria) about three feet long in the shaft, with a nine-inch lozenge-shaped head 
of iron.* For close quarters he wore on his right side a Parazonium-dagger, and 
on the right a broad cut-and-thrust blade of moderate size. His defences were an 
apron of leather strips, studded with metal ; and a Parma,* the small round shield, 
like the Cetra, some three feet in diameter.* 





Fig. 270. 



Fig. a?!.— 1, a. Helmets of Hastarii (from Trajan's Column); 
3, 4. Helmets of Hastarii ; 5. Bronze Helmet (from CANNiC). 



The Legion proper was a line or rather a triple line of Hastarii * or legionary 
spearmen. Livy* briefly describes the Acies, when it emerged from the 
Phalanx, as 'drawn up into distinct companies, divided into centuries. Each 
company contained sixty soldiers,^ two centurions, and one ensign or standard- 
bearer.^ First in line stood the Hastati in fifteen companies with twenty Velites.* 



* The weapon is well shown in a monumental 
tablet on the Court wall of the Aquileja Museum. 

* The Clypeus, or Clipeus, of favourite Greek 
use, was also round, but larger than the Parma. 
Our * buckler' {buccularius clypcus) takes its name 
from having on it an open mouth {ducca, buccula), in 
Chinese fashion, instead of the umbo, 

» In Livy*s Phalanx (A.U.C. 415) the Velites were 
light-armed men, carrying only a spear and short iron 
pila (viii. 7). 

* A congener of the Keltic ^x/ = branch ; whence 
the Fr. arme d^hast. It was the Greek KoyT6s, 
contus, or lance, an unbarbed spear, a royal sceptre : 
under the Republic it collected the hundreds {hastam 
centumviralcm agcre) ; it noted auctions {jus hastac), 
it was the weapon of the light infantry-man {hasta 
velitaris)^ and it served to part the bride's hair (Ovid, 
Fast. ii. 560). Hastarius and hastatusy hasta and 
quirts are synonyms ; the gasum was a heavier weapon 
and barbed, and the jaculum^ with its diminutives, 
spiculunty vericuluniy or verutum, was a lighter jave- 
lin. Virgil uses has/iU poetically. • Loc, cit. 



• The number of men greatly varied ; the extremes 
of the L^on are 6,800 including cavalry under 
Scipio, and 1,500 under Constantine. In Liv/s 
Legion there were 5,000 infantry and 300 horse 
(viii. 8). Perhaps we may assume an average of 4,000 
foot— a full Austrian regiment. Each line of the three 
numbered 10 cohorts, and each cohort three maniples. 
The latter were named from manipulus, a handful (of 
grass, &c., Georg. i. 400), because this rustic article 
at the end of a pole was the standard of Romulus. 

^ The Signa, ensigns, or standards, were different 
in the legions. The Vexillum, or colours of cavalry, 
was a square of cloth, also called Pannus (ir^yos). 
The word is a congener of the Gothic Fana and Fan ; 
the Ang. Sax. Pan ; the Germ. Fahm ; the French 
bannih^e and our banner. Hence, too, Gonfanon 
= Gundfano, When the Eagle became imperial, 
and the Vexillum a Labarum with a cross, this 
standard was splendidly decorated, and led to the 
French oriflamme. The latter was made of the fine 
red (silk ?) stuff called cendalum^ cendal. or sendel. 

• These * light bobs ' were re-organised and regu- 



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THE SWORD IN ROME, 



247 



Behind them were the Principes with heavy shields and complete armour, also 
numbering fifteen companies. These thirty companies were called Antepilani, 
because there were fifteen others placed behind them with the standards ; each of 
the latter consisted of three divisions, and the first division of each they called a 
Pilus. The first ensign was at the head of the third line proper, the Triarii. 
Behind them stood the Rorarii, whose ability was less by reason of their youth 
and inexperience ; and, lastly, in the rear, came the Accensi, a body in which little 
confidence was reposed. The Hastati began the fight, and if unable to gain the 
day, passed to the rear through the ranks of the Principes. The latter now 
marched forwards to action, the Hastati following. Meanwhile the Triarii continued 
kneeling behind the Ensigns; the left legs extended to the front, the shields 
resting on the shoulders ; the spear-points erect with butts firmly fixed in the 
ground, so that the line bristled as if inclosed by a rampart. If the Principes 
failed, " res ad Triarios rediit." The Triarii, after receiving the Principes and Has- 
tati into their intervals, closed files and fell 
upon the enemy in a compact body.* This 
was the most formidable attack, when the 
enemy, having pursued the vanquished, sud- 
denly beheld a new line starting up.' 

Thus far Livy. I am tempted by the 
subject of the Roman legionaries, those * mas- 
sive hammers of the whole earth,' to add, 
despite its triteness, a few details. 

The Hastatus or spearman, a young light- 
armed soldier, preceded the colours ; hence 
he was called Antesignanus. He wore for defence a plain or crested helmet 
which varied with his legion.^ He had a bronze breast-plate thirty-two inches 
long, or a cuirass of thin metal plates defending the chest and forming shoulder- 
pieces. A kilt ^ of the same material protected his lower body ; greaves or leggings 
(ocrece) his legs, and the Scutum or shield his flank. This article {aKvrosy leather, 
dog-skin ?), a curved rectangular oblong, larger than the Parma, measured about 
four feet by two and a half feet ; the framework was of wood, and the covering 
had a strong boss and metal platings. As his name denotes, the Hastatus was 
armed with the full-sized spear, and with a long or short * gladius ' or * ensis.' The 
latter was carried on the right, as a rule ; as will be seen, it greatly varied in size 
and shape. The soldier, when excited in battle, threw away his spear and drew 





Fig. 272.— Hastatus ^krom Trajan's 
Column). 



larly established in A.U.C. 541, after the battle o! ■ The original kilt was the waist-cloth, man's 



Cannse. 

• In fact, it formed phalanx, a word originally 
meaning a block or a cylinder. 

* The officer's was adorned by way of honour- 
able decoration with three (ostrich ?) feathers black 
and scarlet. 



primitive dress in the Tropics and ihe lower Tempc- 
rates. It became an article of defence under the 
Greeks and Romans ; and thence it spread over most 
of Europe. The Maltese long j^reservcd it, and the 
Fustaiulla is still worn in Greece and Albania. In 
Ireland it was ancient, as it is modern in Scotland. 



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248 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



his Sword ; the Etruscans did the same.' The shield-umbo was also used in 
close combat to bear down the opponent. 

The second line, which like the third followed the standards, was composed of 
the Principes or Proci, soldiers of mature age. The name seems to denote that 
originally they formed the front line, as the Greek Promachoi and our Grenadiers.* 
Lastly came the Triarii (third line men), a reserve, so called from their position — 
veterans of tried valour who were expected to retrieve the fortunes of the day. At 
first they were the only Pilani * (javelineers), as opposed to the two first lines 
(Antepilani). Their redoubtable weapon, which conquered so much of the old 
world, and which descended by inheritance to the Franks, was about six feet and 
three-quarters long, composed of an iron (two feet) with oval or pyramidal head, 
set by a broad tang in a wooden socketed shaft treble its length. The latter was 

round at the heel and squared about the shoulders, 
as we learn from Livy,* when describing the Phalarica 
or fire-missile. Both Principes and Triarii also carried 
Swords, the former at the right hip, the latter above 
it : as has before been noticed this is a most com- 
plicated snbject. The bandsmen wore, like the 
Signa-bearers, a peculiar helmet ; they consisted of 
tubicines (using the tubuy a long Etruscan trumpet), 
of cornicines (the comu being a writhed horn), and of 
buccinatores, blowing a short simple instrument. The 
Roman officers were armed like the men. 

Under the term utraque militia was included the 
legionary cavalry whose number varied little in pro- 
portion to the infantry. In Polybius' day the ratio 
was two hundred to four thousand. This arm was clad in a complete suit of bronze 
less heavy than the Greeks and the Gallo-Greeks ; * the buckler of ox-hide was 
round, oval, or polygonal. The horseman's weapons were a Spear {contus\ often 
accompanied by a javelin, a waist- dagger, and a Sword worn on the right ; the 
latter, unlike ours, preserved the form of the infantry weapon. The Greek cavalry 
in the Roman service at the siege of Jerusalem, as we learn from Josephus, carried 
long Swords suspended to the right flank. 

Lastly, the Legion was followed by its massive tortnenta (artillery) : catapults 




Fig. 873.— Centurion's Cuirass, with 

pHALBRiB OR DECORATIONS. 



' Livy, ix. 35. ' Livy, viii. 8. 

• Pilutn, like our • pile,' a congener of the Teu- 
tonic Pfeily is not a Roman i.ivention, and was 
probably borrowed from the Samnites (Sallust Cat, 
51, 38). The/f/«w muraUy used for piercing walls 
(Caesar, B, G, v. 40), was a round or quadrangular 
shaft of three cubits, with an iron of the same length 
(Polybius, vi. 23, 9). The pilum was perpetually 
changing size and proportions ; moreover, there 
were two kinds, the heavy and the light. The 



figures in the text are those of the Mayence pilum 
(Jahns, p. 201). 

* Livy, xxi. 8. 

» Under Trajan and Septimius Severus the cavalry 
adopted the iron or bronze HatmUa, hooked metal 
chains, forming a kind of mail-coat, and the 
Squamatay scales sewn on to linen or leather. Demmin 
(p. 121) erroneously makes the latter * chain-armour,* 
and yet his illustration shows the scales. 



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THE SWORD IN ROME, 249 

(for darts) and balistce (for stones), escorted by the vexillarii or oldest soldiers, 
under their own vexillum, and worked by the Sappers ox fabri {lignariiy &c.). The 
camp-followers {calones^ lixce) and the baggage {impedimenta) brought up the rear. 

The Roman infantry was carefully drilled. Vegetius tells us that recruits 
were exercised with osier-bucklers and stakes double the weight of the normal 
Swords. There were also regular champs de Mars^ * sham-fights ' with wooden 
Swords and with javelins whose points were sheathed in balls. 

In the effeminate days of the Empire, shortly after Constantine, military dis- 
cipline was relaxed, and the decay of the Legion became complete. Instead of 
shouldering their packs the men carried them in carts. The Hasta was given up, 
and the helmet and the cuirass were dispensed with as too heavy. Vegetius * had 
reason to ascribe the defeat of the Legion by the Goths to the want of its old 
defensive armour. 

It was not only when campaigning that the Romans studied the use of arms. 
In the Campus Martius and the other seven * parks ' of the Capital, crowds of young 
men practised riding, swording, and athletics. Another mighty Salle d'Armes was 
the Amphitheatre. To a purely military nation, gladiatorism had great merits. 
* C'estoit, k la verit^,' says Montaigne,^ ' un merveilleux exemple, et de tresgrand 
fruict pour Tinstitution du peuple, de veoir touts les jours en sa presence cent, 
deux cents, voire mille couples d'hommes, armez les uns contre les aultres, se 
hacher en pieces, avecques une si extreme fermet^ de courage, qu'on ne leur veit 
lascher une parole de foiblesse ou commiseration, jamais toumer le dos, ny faire 
seulement un mouvement lasche pour gauchir au coup de leur adversaire, ains 
tendre le col k son espee, et se presenter au coup.' 

It appears to me that the nineteenth century wastes much fine sentiment upon 
the * detestable savagery of the Lanista,* ' and upon the wretches 

Butchered to make a Roman holiday. 

T\iQ ludus gladiatorius^ began as a humane institution amongst the Etruscans, 
who, instead of slaughtering, upon the funeral pyre, slaves and war-captives, like 
Achilles and Pyrrhus, allowed them to fight for their lives. The munus at Rome, 
moreover, was originally confined to public funerals, and it was an abuse which 
allowed it at private interments, at entertainments, and at holiday festivals in general. 
According to Livy * * when Scipio exhibited gladiators at Carthage * (B.C. 546) 
'they were not slaves or men who sold their blood, the usual stuff of the 
Lanista's school* ^ The service was voluntary and gratuitous. Combatants were 
often sent by petty princes to show the courage of their people ; others came for- 

> De Re Mil, i. 16. Ephorus that the Mantineans were the inventors of 

' Essais de Montaigne, 1. ii., chap. 24 (Paris : Gladiatorism proper (/xoyoftaxovrrcf), suggested by 

Garnier Fr^res, 1874), one of their citizens, Demus or Demonax, and that 

■ Or maStre cTarmes, a word borrowed by Rome the Cyreneans followed suit. • Livy, xxviii. 21. 

from Etruria. The legionary teachers were termed • In early Roman days the Gladiator was 

armiJoctores and campidoctores, infamous ; even Petronius Arbiter {Satyr, cap. i ) 

^ Athenofus (iv. 41) relates from Hermippus and uses 'you obscene gladiator' as an insult. 



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2 50 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

ward in compliment to the General, and some decided their disputes by the Sword. 
Amongst persons of distinction were Corbis and Orsua, cousins-german, who deter- 
mined to fight out their claims to the city called Ibes, and they * exhibited to the 
army a most interesting spectacle/ the elder swordsman easily mastering the artless 
attacks of the younger. 

Even when the gladiators at Rome were condemned criminals and captives 
whose lives were forfeited by the old laws of war, some humanity remained. 
Although the malefactors doomed ad gladuim were to be slain within the year, 
those sent only ad ludum might obtain their discharge within three years. And 
under the Empire to join the shows became * fashionable : * Severus was compelled to 
forbid freeborn citizens, knights, senators, and even women from entering the arena. 

The life of the gladiator was one to make the * honest poor ' curse their lot. 
He was trained in the best climates, and fed with the most succulent food {sagina 
gladiatoria) : hence Cicero * calls rude health and good condition * gladiatoria 
totius corporis firmitas.* He became one of difamilia or brotherhood after taking the 
oath, which Montaigne gives from Petronius (i 17) : — * Nous jurons de nous laisser en- 
chainer, brusler, battre et tuer de glaive, et de souffrir tout ce que les gladiateurs 
legitimes souffrent de leur maitres, engageant tr^s-religieusement le corps et Time 
k son service.* In other words, he had plenty of society and he was disciplined. 
Under the Lanista he practised daily at the schools, and the ludus matutinus near 
the Coeliolus or little Coelian Hill was frequented by all classes.* Here he * fought 
the air * {ai^a hipuv), a ^Kiayjix^ like our fighting the sack ; he contended with 
the rudis (rod or wooden Sword) ; he cut at the Palus, the * post-practice * of 
German universities and modern regiments, and he strengthened back and 
shoulders with the Halteres (dumb-bells, dombelles\ and with other artifices. 
Thus a wound, fatal to a man out of training, would only disable one in such 
splendid condition.^ Pliny,* indeed, makes light of his danger. Speaking of C. 
Curio's two pivot-theatres, which during representations could be wheeled inwards 
or outwards, this model grumbler declares : * The safety of the gladiators was almost 
less compromised than that of the Roman people, which allowed itself to be 
thus whirled round from side to side.' 

If worsted in combat and sentenced to receive the Sword {ferrum recipere)^ the 
gladiator, prepared for his fate, met it with manly firmness. When the down- 
turned thumbs granted mercy, the vanquished got his missio or discharge for the 
day. Augustus humanely abolished the barbarity of shows sine missione, where 
no quarter was given. The victor was presented with palms, whence plurimarum 
palmarum gladiator ; and with cash, which doubtless commended him to the other 
sex. We read of old gladiators, showing that the career was not necessarily fatal. 

' Philip, ii. 25. combat^ * refreshing himself wilh a drink of lye of 

* Marius and Pompey the Great both * kept up* ashes.* Can they mean the antiseptic charcoal, 

their swordsmanship in these schools and in the Champ whose use has been revived of late years ? 

de Mars, the latter till the age of fifty-eight. 

' Hence his simple medication when /iors dc * Nat, Hist, xxxvi. 24. 



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THE ROMAN GLADIATOR, 251 

These veterans, and sometimes novices who had fought only in a few munera^ were, 
at the request of the people, discharged the service by the Editor or Exhibitor of 
the games. They were then presented with a Rudis {nide donati), and, as Rudiarii 
lived happily ever afterwards. 

We have also notices of distinguished gladiators. Diogenes Laertius * does 
not disdain to mention as the fourth Epicurus, ' lastly, a gladiator.' Spartacus, 
Crixus, and (Enomaus broke out of Lentulus' fencing-school, escaped from Capua, 
and made a camp at Vesuvius ; they used the Swords made out of iron plundered 
in the slave-houses to such effect that Athenaeus declares, * If Spartacus had not died 
in battle, he would have caused no ordinary trouble to our countrymen, as Eunus 
did in Sicily.' ^ 

Gladiatorial shows were first exhibited (B.C. 246) in the Forum Boarium by Marcus 
and D. Brutus at their father's funeral, during the Saturnalia (our Christmas) and the 
Minerva feasts.* They were abolished by Constantine 'the Great' (A.D. 306-33), 
but the edict seemed to give them fresh life ; Frank prisoners were slaughtered by 
the hundred in the arena of Trfeves. They were finally suppressed (A.D. 404) by 
Honorius, who made a martyr of the monk Telemachus. I need hardly relate 
how this meddling ecclesiastic rushed into the amphitheatre to separate the com- 
batants, and was incontinently stoned by * the house.' 

But the time had come for abolishing these glorious spectacula ; as mostly 
. happens, long custom and familiarity had merged the use into the abuse, and 
caused Lactantius to exclaim * toUenda est nobis ! ' The misuse had begun under 
Divus Caesar, who collected so many gladiators for the fights that his enemies 
became alarmed, and restricted the number. Caligula, the * Bootling,' was devoted 
to the sport, and made some gladiators captains of his German guards. He 
deprived the * Mirmillones ' * of certain weapons. One Columbus coming off 
victorious in a fight, but slightly hurt, he caused the wound to be infused with 
poison, which got the name of Columbinum. The nervous Claudius (* Caldius ') 
assisted at the spectacula 'muffled up in a pallium, a new fashion!' Having 
spared, at the intercession of his four sons, a conquered prize-fighter, he sent a 
billet round the house reminding the spectators how much it behoved them to get 
children, since these could procure favour and security for a gladiator. In later years 
he became savage. If a combatant chanced to fall, especially one of the Retiarii, 
he ordered him to be butchered that he might enjoy the look of the face in the 
agonies of death. Two combatants happening to kill each other, he ordered some 
little knives to be made of their Swords. He also delighted in seeing Bestiarii, 
and he made the sport most brutal and sanguinary. Nero, during his * golden 
quinquennium,' ordered that no gladiators, even condemned criminals, should be 

' Sub V, Epicurus. • The first Roman artist who painted gladiators 

was Terentius Lucanus (Pliny, N, H, xxxv. 34). 
^ Deipn. vi. 105. Eunus was the slave-leader in ^ The Mirmillo, alias Gallus, is supposed to be 

the Servile War, which began B.C. 130 derived from a Keltic word, meaning a fish. 



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252 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

slain ; and he persuaded four hundred senators and six hundred knights, some of 
unbroken fortunes and unblemished fame, to fight in the arena. He espoused the 
cause of the Thraces or Parmularians, and often joined in the popular demonstra- 
tions in favour of the Prasine or ' green faction,' without, however, compromising 
his dignity or doing injustice. In his later and crueller days,' hearing the master 
of a family of gladiators say that a Thrax was a match for a Mirmillo, but not so 
for the exhibitor of the games, he had him dragged from the benches into the 
arena and exposed to the dogs, with this label, * A Parmularian guilty of speaking 
blasphemy.' And, as * Mero ' scandalised the world by his passion for singing and 
harping, so Commodus degraded himself by amateur gladiatorship. He was cun- 
ning of fence, but in the most cowardly way. A powerful man and a practised 
gymnast, he wore impenetrable armour and fought with a heavy Sword, whereas 
his antagonists were allowed only blades of tin and lead. Even the humane 
Trajan * exhibited after his victories some ten thousand Dacian * monomachists.' 
The militarism of the Romans, however, made them familiar with butchery. Thus 
Tacitus* says: 'The Germans gratified us with the spectacle of a battle in 
which above sixty thousand men were slain.' This * gladiatorial show ' took place 
near the canal of Drusus, where the Roman guard on the Rhine commanded a 
view of the other shore. 

The gladiators used both forms of Swords, the straight two-edged blade and 
the curved.* The Dimacheri carried, as the name denotes, two weapons : these 
may have been either two Swords of the same size, as carried by the Japanese,* or 
possibly Sword and dagger, a practice long preserved on the shores of the Medi- 
terranean. The same may be said of the duos gladios borne by the Gaul whom 
Torquatus slew. The Hoplomachi, armed cap-a-pie, must also have been Swords- 
men. The Mirmillo^ was weaponed with a curved blade, cutting inside (*gladio 
incurvo et falcato ') : in Montfaucon, he carries a long convex shield and a Sica or 
short-Sword.^ Opposed to the Mirmillo was the Retiarius, armed with net and 
trident: Cortez found net-soldiers in Mexico, as was natural to fishermen. 
Winckelmann shows a fight between the two : Retiarius has netted his fish and 

> If Nero was the monster represented by the man (Samurai) wore sword and dagger. The blades 

commentaries and the contemporary Christians, we used to be of equal length. Of the Japanese sword I 

must wonder how this anti-Christ was loved in life by shall treat in Part II. 

Acte, the *■ sweet and pure-minded Christian * ; and * Copied by Smith i^DuL of Ant, p. 456) from 

why the citizens of Rome sorrowed for his death. Winckelmann {Monummta Ifudita, PI. 197) : the 

And there is much suggestion in the fact that the latter, by the by, was murdered at Trieste, 
greatest persecutors of the earliest Christians were ^ The word seems to be a congener of Sahs^ Sax^ 

the best of the Caesars, for instance, Vespasian, Titus, or Seax^ the weapon supposed to have named the 

Diocletian and Julian. Saxons. It was either straight or curved, the main 

' Seethe character given to him by Eutropius, object being to fit it closely to the body or under the arm- 

viii. 4. pits. Hence it was a favourite with the Sicarius (Ital. 

* De Morib. Germ, xxxiiL suario\ the Assassin. Gregory of Tours has (ix. 19) 

* Mariette, Rectuil, No. 9a. « Caput sicharii sicdl dividit. ' A fanciful derivation 

* The learned Mr. Tylor is notably in error when of Sicily is from sica^ because Cronos threw one 
he informs Mr. Herbert Spencer (Ceremofiial Inslp- away at Drepanum. From the diminutive form 
tutions^ pp. 174-75) t^at the Japanese two-b worded Sicula and SilUUula comes the English * sickle.* 



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THE ROMAN GLADIATOR, 253 

proceeds to use the fuscina or iridens^ while a toga'd Lanista, rod in hand, stands 
behind him and points out where to strike. 

The Samnites were distinguished by the oblong tribal scutum ' and the leaf- 
shaped Greek Sword : so says the Comte de Caylus ; but on the monument erected 
by Caracalla to Bato, the weapon is straight up and down. The Thraeces or Threces 
(lliracians proper) ^ had round shields, and instead of the huge Swords noted by 
Livy, the short knife called by Juvenal yJ^Zr supina? The Thracian's Sword closely 
resembles that used in the Isle of Cos. Winckelmann ^ gives a combat between 
two Thracians, each backed up by his Lanista. We find also a naked Gladiator, 
with Sword and shield, fighting another in breast-belt, apron {subligaculum\ and 
boots, with a shield and a XhT^^-thong^ flagellum or scourge. 

The Gladiators were an order distinct from the Bestiarii {OripLofidxoC), who 
fought against wild beasts ; these were exhibited in the Forum, those in the 
Circus. Again, Bestiarii, who can boast that St. Paul once belonged to them, 
must not be confounded with the criminals thrown ad leoneSy without means of 
defence, like Mentor, Androclus, and early Christian communists.* The beast- 
fighters had their scholce bestiarutn or bestiariorum where they practised weapons, 
and they received auctoramentum or pay. The arms were various : mostly they 
are shown with a Sword in one hand, a veil in the other, and the left leg pro- 
tected by greaves. Under Divus Caesar criminals for the first time encountered 
wild beasts with silver weapons. The modem survival is the Spanish bull-fight. 
Gladiatorism l?isted in England after a fashion till the days of Addison ; amongst 
professional Swordsmen, the highest surviving name is that of 

the great Figg, by the prize-fighting swains 

The monarch acknowledged of MaryTione plains.* 

To conclude this discursus on gladiatorism. Most popular sports are cruel, but 
we must not confound, as is often done, cruelty with brutality. The former may 
accompany greatness of intellect, the latter is the characteristic of debasement. 
Every nation is disposed to * fie-fie ' its neighbour's favourite diversion. The 
English fox-hunter and pigeon-shooter ^ are severe upon bull-fighting and cock- 

' This hide-shield, which supplanted the clypeus tale of Androclus is well known ; he was pardoned, 

or clipeus^ the large round article of osier-work, was and presented with his friend the lion, whom he used 

also Sabine. to lead about Rome, doubtless collecting many 

• Petronius Arbiter, chap. i. 7. coppers. 

» Falx is properly a large pruning knife, plain or • He is called by Captain Godfrey • the Atlas of 

toothed, with a coulter or bill projecting from the the sword,* and Hogarth immortalised this valiant 

back of the curved head. Besides this, there are * rough * in the Rak^s Progress and Southwark Fair, 
many forms; one is a simple curve; another is a ' It is regretable to see this unmanly and ignoble 

leaf-shaped blade with an inner hook, while a third ' sport * spreading abroad : there was pigeon-shooting 

bears, besides the spike, a crescent on the back. at Venice during the Geographical Carnival, alias 

*Falx* is the origin of our 'falchion,' an Italian Congress, of September 1881. All honour to the 

augmentative form, or perhaps the Spanish /aeon. English Princes who are discountenancing the butchery 

CdssAX {Comm. iii. 14) spe&\(s o( /a/ces ^aacu^te, at home. Fox-hunting is another thing; the chief 

• Loc, cit, , copied by Smith. good done by it seems to be the circulation of about 

• Mentor is mentioned by Pliny (viiL 21}. The a million of mocey per annum. 



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254 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

fighting — the classical and Oriental pastime preserved in Spain and in Spanish 
South America.* The boxer, who imitates, at a humble distance, the Cestus-play 
of the Greeks and Romans, looks scandalised at la boxe Franqaise^ with its gar- 
nishing of savate ; and at the Brazilian capoeira^ who butts with his woolly head. 
And so vice versd. Absence or presence of fair play should, methinks, condemn or 
justify all the various forms of sport which are not mere or pure barbarities. And, 
applying this test, we shall not harsh judge the gladiatorial games of Rome. 

I now proceed to describe the Sword amongst the Romans, a simpler subject 
than in Greece. 

As the so-termed founding of Rome took place during the early Iron Age of 
Southern Europe, it is probable that the citizens, like their predecessors the 
Etruscans, originally made their blades of copper and bronze, the leaf-shape being 
borrowed from the Greeks, as we see it retained by the gladiators. The material 
would last into the Age of Steel, but even in her early years Rome must have 
preferred the harder metal. Pliny expressly tells us that Porsena, after his short- 
lived conquest, prohibited the future masters of the world from using iron except 
in agriculture ; it was hardly safe to handle a stylus. Polybius notes that in his 
day bronze was entirely restricted to defensive armour — helmets, breast-plates, and 
greaves. All offensive weapons, swords and spears, were either made of, or 
tipped with, steel. To this superiority of material we may attribute the Roman 
successes in the second Punic war (B.C. 218-201), and their conquest of the gallant 
Gauls, when their foes could oppose nothing better than bronze. They had reason 
to call a S-word ferrum} 

The Romans called the Sword Ensis, Gladius, and Spatha. The two former 
are used as synonyms by Quinctilian,* but the first presently became poetical. 
The derivations are eminently unsatisfactory. Voss would find Ensis in S^xps, 
hasta ; Sanskritists in Asiy a Sword, the Zend Anh, Gladius is popularly drawn 
a clade ferenda^ quasi cladius (Varro and Littleton) ; Voss prefers icKaiov {ramus), 
a young branch, the earliest Sword : to others it appears a congener of the 
Keltic Clad^ the destroyer. Of the derivation of * Spatha ' I have already treated : 
Suetonius * makes it equivalent to Machaira ; but this word and its diminutive 
Machaerium are loosely used. 

The Roman Sword was, like their other weapons, longer and larger, heavier 
and more formidable than that of the Greeks.* The earliest form, the * heroes arm ' 
of Virgil and Livy, was a short single-edged cutting weapon of bronze, also called 
the * Gallic Sword,* because long preserved by that people. It is shown in the arm of 

» I have described cockfighting in the Canary signify a bow : there are many instances of such 

Islands (To the Gold Coast for Gold, i., chap. 9). nomenclature. 

The celebrated story ofThemistocIes and the game- ' Quinctilian, Inst, Orat, xii. 11. Marchioimi 

cocks made the pastime classical. Alexander the (p. 123) makes theGladius short and broad for infantry. 

Great is said to have crucified a tax-gatherer at and the Ensis long and broad for cavalry, in fact, 

Alexandria who killed and ate a famous fighting-cock. synonymous with Spatha. This view is not unusual. 

Verdict, S. H. R. * In Claud, cap. 15. 

2 So M€\(i? and the O. Germ. Ask (an ash-tree) * Florus, ii. 17. 



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THE SWORD IN ROME. 



255 



the Roman Auxiliary (fig. 276). Another very early, if not the earliest, shape was 
the leaf, which varied in length from nineteen inches (the blade found at Mayence) 
to twenty-six inches (the Bingen find). The latter is peculiar ; the hilt is orna- 
mented with bronze, and it has a cross-guard. Upon another blade (fig. 277), of 
which a cast is in the Artillery Museum, Paris, appears the armourer's mark, 
Sabini {opus). 

The third form, which is most generally identified with the Roman soldier, 
greatly resembles that which was introduced into the French army by, not without 
financial benefit to, Marshal Soult. The average length may be assumed at 
twenty-two inches, with a grip of six inches and a cross-bar (not always present) 





Fig. 874.— I- Roman Sword (19 inches long) ; 
2. Gladius. 



Fig. rjS' — Bronze 
Two- Edged Early 
Roman Ensis.' 



Fig. 276.— Sword 
OF Roman Aux* 

ILIARY. 



Fig. 277.— Roman 
Sword (Mus^ 
d'Art.). 



four inches and a half long and four lines thick. Some specimens show a distinct 
hilt-plate (fig. 274, 2). A mid-rib ran along the blade, which was either straight or 
slightly narrowing, and it ended in the bevelled point {langue de carpe)} This thick 
heavy blade, used ccesim et punctim^ was most efficient for hand-to-hand work, and 
the Roman soon mastered the truth, unknown to most Orientals, that the cut wounds 
and the thrust kills.' ' Accordingly they soon learned to despise the old Sword, 

' This blade greatly resembles one found in Ostir- 
botten, Finland, except that the latter preserves the 
tang. Trans, Congress of Bologna of i^Ti, p. 428. 

The point was called cuspis, which never 
applies to the mucro, <uies^ or edge. * Diflert a 
mucrone quae est acies gladii,* says Facciolati. 

> See chap. vii. In Hugues de Bangoi^s Battle 
of Benevento we read : * Le Roy Charles ' (brother of 



St. Louis, and then fighting to take Sicily from 
Manfred) ... * crioit de sa bouche Royale ^ ses 
Chevaliers de serrer les ennemis, leur disant, Frappez 
de la pointe^ Frappez de la pointe, soldats de Jisus 
Christ, £t il ne faut pas s*en ^tonner, car ce Prince 
habile avait lu dans le Livre de TArt Militaire 
que les nobles Romains n'avoient pas imaging de 
meilleure mani^re de combattre que de percer les 
ennemis avec la pointe de l*cp^c.' 



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256 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



short and crooked. The national weapon must have been used by ^miHus at the 
Battle of Telamon (B.C. 225), for Polybius notes that the Roman blade could 
not only deliver thrust but give the cut with good effect. 

Shortly after that fight the Romans, during their earliest invasions of the 
Spanish Peninsula (B.C. 219), intended to subvert Carthaginian rule, adopted the 
Gladius Hispanus, including the pugio (fig. 280) ; and the change from bronze to 
steel became universal after the battle of Cannae. The superior material aided 
them not a little in conquering their obstinate rivals. The Roman Proconsul M. 
Fulvius captured (B.C. 192) Toledo (TcoX^yroi/), Toletum, ' a small city, but strong- 
in position ; * and the superior temper of the steel, attributed with truth, I believe, 
to the Tagus-water, recommended it to the conquerors. A later conquest of 
the Regnum Noricum* (Styria, B.C. 16) gave them mines of equal excellence. 
From Pliny and Diodorus Siculus * we know perfectly how the Celtiberians pre- 






FiG. 278.— Sword and Vagina (Sheath). 



Fig. 279.— Ditto. 



Fig. 280.— The Pugio. 



pared their iron ores. Of this material was made the Spatha or Iberian blade, a 
name adopted under the Empire, especially under Hadrian (A.D. 1 17-138). Long, 
two-edged, and heavier than the short Xiphos-Gladius, it added fresh force to the 
impetus gladiorum. 

In Cicero's time the Sword must have been of full length to explain the joke 
against his son-in-law ; and Macrobius expressly tells us that Lentulus was wear- 
ing a blade which justified the * chaff.' During the days of Theodosius (A.D. 378- 
394), the straight and strong weapon of Hadrian's time again shortened till it was 



• Livy, XXXV. 12. According to Spanish tradition, 
Toletum (probably a Carthaginian-Punic word) was 
founded B.C. 540 by Hebrews, who called it Toledoth, 
in Arab. Tawallud, the 'mother of cities.* 

• Properly the South- Danube country from the 
"Wienerwald to the Inn. The great seat of the iron 
works was at Lauriacum (Lorch, near Enns). After 
B.C. 16 the province was ruled by a Procurator. 

• See chap. vi. 



* In Tonini's Rimini avanti V era vofgare (p. 
31) we read that the Spatha-blade * Come ognuno sa, 
presso i Greci quanto presso i Latini, est genus gladii 
latioris ; onde Isidoro nelle Origini (xviii. cap. 6) 
ha che alcuni spatham latine autumant^ eo quod spatiosa 
sit^ id est lata et amplaj' But this is a dictionary de- 
rivation. In chap. viii. I have traced it back to the 
Egyptian Sfet^ and in chap. xiii. I shall show that 
it is the straight broadsword as used by the Kelts. 



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THE ROMAN SWORD, 



217 



not twice the size of the hilt ; in fact it became a ' Parazonium.' The General's 
Sword (says Meyrick) was called Cinctorium, because carried at the girdle that 
surrounded the lorica, just above the hips ; * it greatly resembled the Lacedae- 
monian Sword.* 

The Parazonium,/t^^ * or dagger, accompanied the Gladius under the later 
Empire, and was carried in the same, or in another, belt, generally on the opposite 
flank. It is the Greek iyxei'piS(^v, and we have seen its origin in Egypt The 
metal was successively pure copper, bronze and steel. The shape of this two-edged 
stiletto is either lanceolate (fig. 280 ^),* showing its descent from the spear, or the 
straight lines converge to a point (ibid. a). It has a notable resemblance to the 
daggers found in Egyptian tombs (Hid c)y and the weapon with the Z-section, still 
used in the Caucasus and in Persia.* The tang is usually fitted to receive a 
wooden plate on either side: a favourite substance was 
the heart of the Syrian terebinth (the ' oak * of Mamre). 

The bronze hilt of the Gladius was retained long after 
the blade was made of steel. The common grip was of 
wood set with metal knobs or rivets; the richer sorts 
were of bone and ivory, amber and alabaster, silver and 
gold. The heft ended in a capulus ; this metal pommel * 
was, in its simplest state, a plain mound or a stepped 
pyramid. But presently the 'little apple' became the 
seat of decoration ; * Pliny moans over it, and Claudian 
speaks of capulis radiantibus enses. This fashion lasted 

deep into the Middle Ages. The haft was often capped with the head of some 
animal after Assyrian fashion, and that of the eagle recurved was a favourite in 
Rome. In the Armeria Reale (Turin) ^ there is a fine Roman chopper-blade with 
a peculiar handle, and a ram's head for hilt The handle was usually without 
guard-plate, and at most it had only a simple cross-bar or a small oval.^ 

The original vagina (sheath) was of leather or wood, ending in di fibula or half- 
moon-shaped ferule of metal. Some scabbards on the monuments, where the 
Sword, like the helmet and the pilum^ is conventionally treated, show the scabbard 
with three opposing rings on either side ; and, as the belt had only one or two, it 
is not easy to explain the use of the other five.® In the luxurious days of the 
Empire, the sheath, like the heft, the pommel, and the ferule, was made of gold 





Fig. a8x.— Two-Edced Roman 
Stilbttos. 



> Parazonium — wapd + (jAmn, ^gio^ our * po- 
niard/ is from pugnus (x^l), the fist ; others take it 
from pungere to prick. 

* Smith {Diet, of Ant, p. 809) borrows figs, a 
and b from Beger (T^A^i. Brand, v., iii. p. 398, 419). 

■ See end of chap. riii. 

* Smith {loc, cii, p. 195) renders capulus by 
•hilt.* Pommel, however, best explains Ovid's 
legend of Theseus [Met, vii. 423), who, appearing 
for the first time before his father ^Egeus, was known 
by the carving on his ivory capulus, and thus escaped 



Medea's aconite. Moreover, a < golden hilt set with 
beryls * would have been very awkward to handle. 

* Virg. Mn, xii. 942. 

• Section Beaumont. The grip has four hollows 
to fit the fingers. This indentation -system has been 
revived of late years, as shown by the swords of 
Victor Emmanuel and General Lamarmora in the 
Municipal Museum, Turin. 

* Guard plates, accompanying cross-bars, have 
been found in Gaul. 

• These rings appear on the scabbard of Tiberius. 



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258 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



and silver reliefs, repouss^e-vfotk^ and incrustations of precious stones disposed upon 
every part, made it a chef-d'ceuvre of art. Such is the ' Sword,' or rather * Para- 
zonium, of Tiberius ' dug up at Mayence in 1848, and now in the British Museum. 
The scabbard, the mouth, the rings on either side, and the ferule are strengthened 
and beautified by reliefs in gold and silver, and the central field bears the portrait 
of the beautiful * Biberius.' Another Parazonium (Anglo-Rom. 
Coll.) has an iron blade and a bronze scabbard. 

A reform of this over-luxury ensued under Constantius II. 
(A.D. 350), and under the noble and glorious Julian* 'the 
Apostate.* The latter took a lesson from the Eastern Persian, 
Parthian, and Sarmatian (Slav ?) ; moreover, he adopted the 
iron face-guard known at Nineveh, and the mail-coat found 
upon the Trajan column. These revivals and improvements 
extended deep into the Age of Chivalry. 

The Sword was carried in the balteus^ an Etruscan word 
applied indifferently, it would appear, to the bauldric (jb>ji^v\ 
or to the waist-* belt ' (fcoi/iy or foxm;/?, cingulum). Both were 
of cloth or leather, either plain or decorated with embroidery, 
with metal plates, splendid and elaborate rings and fibulae, 
and buckles and brooches of the most precious material. It is 
generally said that the Gladius, and its successor the long cut- 
and-thrust Spatha, were worn belted to the right, as amongst the 
Persians. The old Ensis, on the other hand, was slung to the left, 
like the Egyptians, Assyrians, Hindus, and other * barbarians.* * 
The latter fashion enabled the Swordsman to draw his weapon 
safely by passing hand and forearm across his body under the 
shield. He would also in this way grip the hilt with the thumb at 
the black of the blade, where it should ever be held, especially 
when delivering the cut. I believe, however, that the Sword was 
worn by the Romans, as amongst the Greeks, on either flank.* 
We have no knowledge, except from books, of Roman 
Such, for example, was the Cluden or juggler's * shutting '-Sword, 
* So great is your fear of steel,' says Apuleius in his 



Fig. 382. — Sword of 

TlUBRIUS. 



fancy-Swords. 

which ran up into the hilt. 

defence, * that you are afraid to dance with the " close-Sword." ' 

Roman blades of iron are not often found, and yet they must have been made 
by the million. Captain Grose* figures a leaf-shaped blade, like that of the 



* Here I rely upon Ammian. MarcelL (xxiv. 4 ; 
XXV. 3, 4, and passim). So great a reformer could 
not escape detraction in its most venomous form. 
His last words (attributed) Vicisti, Nazarene^ must, I 
think, have been pronounced in Syriac-Arabic, 
Nasart yd Nasrdni. 

* Jahns, p. 198. He gives an illustration (PI. 
xvii. 14) of the * Annseus * monument at Bingen ; 



there is a double balteus worn round the waist for 
the Spatha, or long Sword, to the right, and the Pugio 
to the left, both being carried perpendicularly. The 
Roman Parazonium is also rare in collections. 

• In this matter we must be careful how we trust 
to engravings, especially from vases, &c. The care- 
less artist often reverses the figure. 

* Militctry Antiq., vol ii* ; PI. xU. 



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THE ROMAN SWORD. 259 

modern Somal, taken from the Severn near Gloucester. Meyrick tells us * that 
Woodchester produced an iron Sword-blade resembling a large and broad knife 
(the oldest form of Gladius ?) and a dagger {pugio)^ nearly one foot long, and much 
resembling the modem French bayonet He mentions another iron Gladius nine- 
teen and a half inches long, with a fibula of brass. Rev. T. Douglas, in his * Naenia 
Britannica * * shows the find in a Kentish barrow. The Sword measures thirty-five 
and a quarter inches from pommel to point ; the iron blade, thirty inches by two 
inches broad, is flat and two-edged. The wooden grip had decayed ; the scabbard 
was of wood covered with leather and the weapon hung by a leather strap to the 
left side. Excavations at South Shields produced, says the Rev. J. Collingwood 
Bruce,' five Roman Swords, two to three feet long, with wooden scabbards and 
bronze crampets or ferules. 

If Greece produced the golden youth of European civilisation, Rome bore the 
men of antiquity. She taught by example and precept the eternal lesson of in- 
dividual and national dignity, of law and justice, and of absolute toleration in reli- 
gious matters. She had no fear of growing great, and scruples about * territorial 
aggrandisement * were absolutely unknown to her. The quondam Masters of the 
World effected their marvels of conquest and colonisation with these arts, urged by 
a forceful will, a will so single-viewed and so persistent that it levelled every 
obstacle. A similar gift of determination and perseverance made the Turks and 
Turcomans of a former generation, mere barbarians on horseback, bear down all 
opposition : hence the Arab still says : * Mount your blood mare and the Osmanli 
shall catch you on his lame ass ! ' In virtue of an equal obstinacy, the Kelto- 
Scandinavian (I will not call him an * Anglo-Saxon '), the modem Englishman, has 
trod worthily in the footsteps of the old Italian, and from his * angle of the world,* 
his scrap of bleak inclement island, has extended his sway far beyond the orb 
known to his Caesars. May he only remember the word * Forwards ! * and take to 
heart the fact that to stand still is to fall back. 

The Roman of the Republic was incomparably the first soldier of his age ; and 
he equalled the best of the moderns in discipline, in loyalty to his leaders, and in 
enduring privations, hardship, and fatigue. But a glance at any of his campaigns — 
the famous * Commentaries * suffice — shows how completely dependent he was upon 
the quality of his commander. Handled by second- and third-rate men, such as 
generals mostly have been, are, and will be, he was ignobly defeated, in his most 
glorious days, by the barbarous Gauls of Brennus ; by the half-servile hordes of 
Hannibal ; by the degenerate Greeks of Pyrrhus with their 'huge earth-shaking 
beasts,' and by the armed mob which the Chemscan Arminius (Ormin or Her- 
mann) led against the incompetent Vams. His campaigns, invariably successful in 
the end, were marked by many reverses ; and in cases of sudden and sinister emer- 

' Quoting Lyson's Woodchester Antiquities (PI. by Sir Sibbald David Scott, a well-studied work 
XXXV. ). containing a considerable amount of information. 

» PI. I fig. 10. Quoted in The BtUish Army^ &c., " Soc. of Antiq,^ June 29, 1876. 

S2 



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26o THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 

gencies he was too often scared and put to flight. In fact, he could not fight a 
* soldier's battle * ; nor has any race done this effectively in modem days except the 
English and the Slavs. 

But when following military genius, the Roman soldier performed prodigies of 
gallantry and valour. A Julius Caesar, a conqueror in fifty pitched battles, whose 
practice was to order venite not ite / whose military instinct could cry at the spur of 
the moment in the Pharsalian fight, faciemferiy miles t and who could reduce muti- 
neers to reason by one word, Quirites ! never failed to point the way to victory. 
We learn from the Great Epileptic * himself the secret of his unexampled success ; 
the care with which he cultivated the individual. ' He instructed the soldiers 
(when exposed to a new mode of attack), not like the general of a veteran army 
which had been victorious in so many battles, but like a Lanista training his 
gladiators. He taught them with what foot they must advance or retire ; when 
they were to oppose and make good their ground ; when to counterfeit an attack ; 
at what place and in what manner to launch their javelins.* * 

His very arrogance was effective in making him a ruler of men, as when on 
receiving bad tidings he struck his Sword-hilt, saying, ^ This will give me my 
rights!' And of his 'politik^* (as the Greeks call it) we may judge by what 
Polyaenus ' tells us of him. ' The Romans had been taught by their commanders 
that a soldier should not be decorated with gold or silver, but place his confidence 
in his Sword,* says Livy.^ But Divus Caesar encouraged his men to decorate their 
weapons with all manner of valuables for a truly soldier-like reason, that they 
might be the less ready to part with their property in flight And though he 
plundered freely and rifled even the fanes of the gods, according to Suetonius, he 
was careful, like a certain modem Condottiere, to see that his men were well fed 
and regularly paid by means of the ' loot.' 

The Roman soldier had another valuable gift, which has not wholly left the 
Latin race. He knew the ' magic of patience,* and was aware that ' le monde est 

» During the critical action at Thapsus, Caesar, and a lesson to the leader of troops ; but how many 

according to Plutarch, was hors dt combat with a fit of the modems have practised it, or have beoi cap- 

of epilepsy, the comitialis morbus (Afric. War, chap. able of practising it ? Suv6roff (SuwarroflF), it is true, 

14). I have noticed in my Commentaries on Camoens taught his men bayonet-exercise, with his coat off and 

(i. 40) the strange fact that some of the greatest men his sleeves tucked up : Mediocrity shudders at the 

of antiquity were subject to this "falling sickness.' idea. The Russian had, by the way, curious ideas 

The Egyptians held it to be a manifestation of the concerning the use of the weapon. * Brothers I 

power of Typhon; hence the 'divine disease* of never gaze into the enemy's eyes; fix your sight on 

Apuleius (Defence), and the strange fancies of dae- his breast, and prod your bayonet there.' The first 

moniac possession which prevailed in the earliest ages, rule for the General is to be ever looking after his 

and which have not yet died out The learned Canon men, to live, as it were, in the saddle, and to lead 

Farrar {Life, <Sr*r. of Saint Paul, Appendix, vol. i.) the attack when requisite. What were the habits of 

holds that this perhaps was the * thorn in the flesh ' poor Lord Raglan and of his successor General 

(2 Cor. xii. 7) alluded to by the great Apostle. He Qimmy) Simpson? No wonder that we had the 

quotes from Hausrath the * trances ' of Sokrates, the mortification of the Redan a£Gur. 

fits of Mohammed, and the fainlings and ecstasies of , straiegentaia, viii. 28. The « Macedonian ' 

Saints Bernard, Francis, and Catherine of Sienna ; and flo^j^shed about the middle of the second century 

to these he adds George Fox, Jacob Bohme, and /christian era) 
Swedenborg. 

* This is an illustration of genius taking pains ^ ix. 40. 



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THE ROMAN SOLDIER, 261 

la maison du plus fort' So in the Napoleonic days the Spaniards believed chiefly 
in General * No Importa ' (no matter), and made little of defeat, hoping it might 
lead to victory. Nor did the Roman soldier degenerate till the citizen set him the 
example. Velleius Paterculus dated the decline of Roman virtue after the de- 
struction of Carthage, when civil disputes were decided by the Sword ; others to the 
invasion of luxury with Lucullus. Yet Pliny could boast of his fellow-countrymen : 
* They have doubtless surpassed every other nation in the display of valour.' 

But the Roman soldier generally prevailed against races whom he excelled in 
size, weight, and muscular strength. His superiority in arms, like that of the 
Greek, was not conspicuous when he came into contact with the * barbarians,' * 
especially with the northern barbarians, after they had learned the moral training 
and confidence of discipline and the practical art of war, as well as, if not better 
than, himself For the man of the higher European latitudes has ever surpassed 
the Southron in strength of constitution, in stature, in weight, in muscular power, 
and in the mysterious something called vitality. Hence it is a rule in anthropology 
that the North beats the South ; in the Southern hemisphere the reverse being the 
case, as we see in the wars of the Hispano-American republics. Chili versus Peru. 
In Europe I need only point out that the Northmen of Scandinavia conquered 
Normandy and that Norman-French conquered England. The only exceptions 
are easily explained. The genius of Divus Caesar made his Romans overcome, 
overrun, and subjugate Gaul. Napoleon the Great found the road d Berlin open 
and easy. But intellectual monsters like these two are the rare produce of Time ; 
and human nature requires a long period of rest before repeating such portents. 

Those who read history without prepossessions and prejudices are compelled 
to conclude that the life and career of a nation are mainly determined by its 
physical size and its muscular strength. We have only to learn how many foot- 
pounds a race can raise and we can forecast its so-called * destinies.* * 

1 This word has a universal history of its own, < Barbaros ' broadened its meaning in Rome, 

and contains a lecture on anthropology. where it was applied to all peoples who could not 

Its form is onomatopoetic, the earliest form of ex- speak or who mispronounced Greek and Latin, 

pression, as the Egyptian miaOf for a cat ; and it See Strabo, xiv. 2, on < Barbaros ' and to ' barbarise ' ; 

admirably conveys the idea of muttering or stuttering. thus unhappy Ovid could wail : 

Again, it is a reduplication of sounds ; another absolutely < Barbarus hie ego sum quia non intelligor illis. * 

primitive construction, and the effect is emphasis. Lastly, the ' proto- Aryan * term * Barbarian ' has 

* Berber-ta * (Berber-land) was applied by the an- now grown to full size, and is applied generally to 
cient Egyptians (Catalogue of Thut-mes III.), whence the rude, the fierce, the uncivilised, and those who 
our modem term Barbary. contumaciously ignore the * higher culture.* 

The word in Hebr. * wild beast feeding in waste ' « This is materialism pure and simple ; but all the 

, ,. , , , "5.^ teaching of modem science points to the material. 

migrated to India, and was there corrupted to ^^ ^^ mysterious < li/e ' is no longer • vital power ' ; it 

(Varvara), a barbarous land, one who speaks un- simply represents the sum total of the energies and 

intelligibly. protoplasm. ' Life is a property of protoplasm or 

* Berber ' passed over to Greece from Egypt, and bioplasm, and is the latest product of thought and re- 
became fidpfiapos, meaning a foreigner whose Ian- search. * And I may add that Consciousness, like Will, 
guage was not Hellenic, and who, therefore, was is a property of life in certain of its forms ; a state and 
little better than a beast. (N.B. Shakespeare would condition of cerebral and other atoms ; the mere con- 
have been a barbarian in Persia and Hafiz in England.) sequence of hitherto unappreciated antecedents. 



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262 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE SWORD AMONGSt THE BARBARIANS (EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE). 

Most works on Arms and Armour, when treating of Rome, describe the weapons 
of her European neighbours ' upon whom she sharpened the sword of her valour 
as on a whetstone.* * The extent of the subject will here confine me to a general 
glance, beginning with the Dacians on the east and ending with the British Islands. 
I must reserve details concerning the Kelts, the Scandinavians, the Slavs, and 
other northern peoples for Part II., to which they chronologically belong. 

The Dacians, especially of Dacia Trajana, Hungary, and Transylvania, Mol- 
davia, and Wallachia, are known to us chiefly by the bas-reliefs on the Trajan 
Column. It was built by that emperor, who, like Hadrian, followed in the foot- 
steps of Divus Caesar, to commemorate the conquests of A.D. 103-104 ; and it 
dates three years before his death in A.D. 114. The Dacian Sword was somewhat 
sickle-shaped, with an inner edge, like the oldest Greek and its model, the Egyptian 
Khopsh. A Dacian Sword on the trophy belonging to Dr. Gregorutti, of Papiriano, 
is a curved sabre without a cross-bar. 

I have elsewhere noticed the Thracian Sword. Dr. Evans * mentions the frag- 
ment of a remarkable bronze blade from Grecian Thera ; it has a series of small 
broad-edged axes of gold, in shape like conventional battle-axes, inlaid along the 
middle between two slightly projecting ribs. The same author, speaking of the 
beautiful bronze Sword in the Berlin Museum, reported to have been found at Pella 
in Macedonia, mentions the suspicion that it may belong to the Rhine Valley. ' 

Ancient Illyria has transmitted the Roman Gladius to comparatively modem 
ages. Bosnian tombs of Slavs, Moslem, and Christian, show the short straight 
thrusting Sword, with simple cross-bar and round pommel. It looks as if it had 
been copied from some classical coin. 

The ancient cemetery at Hallstadt in the Salzkammergut, occupied by the 
Danubian-Keltic Alanni or Norican Taurisci, is especially interesting for two 
reasons. It shows the Bronze Sword synchronous with the Iron, and it proves 
that the change of metal involved little of alteration in the form and character of 
the weapon. This, however, was to be expected, as both were adapted for the 
same purpose — the thrust, not the cut. Of the twenty-eight long Swords, six were 

> Floras, iL 3. • Bronuy Sec, p. 298. From Bastian and A. 

« Bronze, &c. p. 297. From Aarbog, / Nord. Voss, Die Bronzt-Sckwerter des K, Mus, m Btrlin^ 
Oldk, 1879, pi. i. 1878, p. 56. 



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THE OLD KELTIC SWORD, 



263 



of bronze, nineteen of iron, and three with bronze hefts and iron blades ; there 
were also forty-five short Swords, iron blades with bronze or ivory handles. The 
blade, about one m^tre long, is leaf-shaped, two-edged, and bevel-pointed. The 
small and gfuardless grip of 2-5 centimetres, when made of bronze, meets the blade 
in a hollow crescent, like the British Sword in the Tower, and is fastened with 
metal rivets. The pommel is either a cone of metal or a crutch with a whorl 
ending either arm. 

Dr. Evans * mentions that in one instance the hilt and pommel of an 
iron Sword are in bronze, in 
another the pommel alone ; 
the hilt-plate of iron being 
flat and rivetted like the 
bronzes. In others the pom- 
mel is wanting. He has a 
broken iron Sword from this 
cemetery, the blade showing 
a central rounded rib, with 
a small bead on either side. 
Also a ' beautiful bronze 
Sword from the same locality, 
on the blade of which are 
two small raised beads on 
either side of the central rib, 
and in the spaces between 
them a three-fold wavy line 
punched in or engraved. In 
this instance a tang has 
passed through the hilt, and 
was formed of alternate 
blocks of bronze and of some 

substance that has perished, possibly ivory. A magnificent iron Sword from 
Hallstadt, now in the Vienna Museum, has the hilt and pommel of ivory inlaid 
with amber.' Other grips were of bronze, wood, or bone. The sheaths were mostly 
of wood, which seemed to have been covered with leather. Most of the blades 
were buried without scabbards, and the bronze had been purposely broken. 

The forty-five short Swords represent the Ensis Noricus (jidxaipa KiXriKo), 
and were in use till the Roman days. The iron-blades are either leaf-shaped or 
formed like the peculiarly English anelace or anlas, more or less conical and 
sharp-pointed ; and the grip of bronze or ivory ended in a simple crutch. Amongst 
them is a distinct Scramasax which may be compared with the late Danish weapon. 



i' ,1 



Fig. aSj. — Gkrmak or 
Slav Sword. ( From a 
bas-relief, Halberstadt.) 



Fig. 384.— Scramasax 
FROM Hallstadt. 
Uahns.) 



F.G. 285. — Danish 
S<:ramasax. (Ninth 
Century, Copenhagen.) 



* Sronu, &c, p. 299, from Von Sacken and 
Lindeschmit's Alterihiimcr, The first finds by Herr 



Namsauer in 1846-64 were 6,000 articles from 993 
graves. 



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264 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

Bronze blades are comparatively rare in Italy, although the use was long 
retained and the weapon is often mentioned by Latin writers in verse and prose.^ 
This seems to decide the question against the Roman origin of the North-Euro- 
pean Sword : of course it is possible that, like the Runic alphabet, they might 
have been copied from coins ; but there are other points which militate against 
this view. Dr. John Evans* notes a peculiarity which he has often pointed out 
by word of mouth, but which has not as yet been noticed in print * It is, that 
there is generally, though not universally, a proportion between the length of the 
blade and the length of the hilt-plate ; long sword blades having, as a rule, long 
hilt-plates, and short sword blades short hilt-plates. So closely is this rule of pro- 
portion preserved, that the outline of a large sword on the scale of one-sixth 
would in some cases absolutely correspond with that of one which was two-thirds 
of its length if drawn on the scale of one-fourth.' This suggests derivation, as if 
an original tnodulus of the weapon had appeared in a certain racial centre and 
thence had radiated in all directions. Nor have we any difficulty in determining 
that this centre was the Nile Valley. 

The bronze Swords of Italy present varieties not found in Britain.* The 
blade-sides are more nearly parallel, and many have a slender tang at the hilt, 
sometimes with one central rivet-hole, sometimes with two rivet-holes forming 
loops at either side of the ' spine.* In others the blade slightly narrows for the tang, 
and each side has two semicircular rivet-notches. In many Italian and French 
Swords the blade is drawn out to a long tapering point, so that its edges present 
a sub-ogival curve. On an Italian quincussis or oblong bronze coin, six inches 
and five-eighths by three inches and a half, and weighing about three pounds 
and a half, is the representation of a leaf-shaped Sword with a raised rib along the 
centre of the blade.^ Upon the reverse appears the figfure of a scabbard with 
parallel sides and a nearly circular chape. Another coin of the same type, 
engraved by Carelli,* has an almost similar scabbard on the reverse, but the Sword 
on the obverse is either sheathed or is not leaf-shaped, the sides being parallel : the 
hilt is also curved, and there is a cross-guard. In fact upon the one coin the weapon 
has the appearance of a Roman Sword of iron, and on the other that of a leaf- 
shaped Sword of bronze. These pieces, says Dr. Evans, were no doubt cast in 

' I have already noticed the copper Ensis and * Bronu, &c., p. 297 ; taken from Gastaldi, 

coppered shield attributed by Virgil {JSn, viii. 74) to Pellegrini and Gozzadini. The author remarks (p. 

the people of Abella, an Italian district under 287) that some of the bronze daggers from Italy seem 

Tumus. also to have had their hilts cast upon the blades in 

« Bronze^ &c., p. 277. The author also notices which the rivets were already fixed. This is not 

the small handles of bronze Swords, * a fact which unfrequent with the Sword, and the object seems mere 

seems to prove that the men who used these swords imitation ; like the Hauranic stone>doors, panelled 

were but of moderate stature* {Prehistoric Times^ p. as if to pass for wood. 

22). He denies their being very small, and he justly . „ ^ © £ j *i. * 41. i> •*• v 

r ,. t .u J- . r .u VM. . * Brome, &c., p. 283, we find that the Bntisk 

believes that the expandmg part of the hut was m- , -^ ' . '^ . ^ 4 1^^ r^^t ^9 

J J »_ -.u- .u r ^u 1. J T u Museum contams a speamen. Catalog, Italy ^ p. 28 

tended to be withm the grasp of the hand. I have ^ 

already explained that the hand was purposely con- • Bronze^ Sec, ibid., quoting from Numm, Vet, 

fined in order to give more momentum to the cut. ItcU, Descript., pi. xii. 



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THE CELTIBERIAN AND OLD SPANISH SWORD. 



265 



Umbria, probably in the third century B.C., but their attribution to Ariminum is at 
best doubtful. From the two varieties of Sword appearing on coins of the same 
type, the inference may be drawn, either that bronze blades were then being super- 
seded in Umbria by iron, or that the original type was some sacred weapon, sub- 
sequently conventionalised to represent the article in ordinary use. 

The iron Swords of the Italian tribes are rarely mentioned, and then cursorily. 
Diodorus Siculus, for instance, tells us (v. 33) that the Ligures had blades of 
ordinary size. They probably adopted the Roman shape, which had proved itself 
so serviceable in the field. 

Proceeding further westward we find Diodorus Siculus (v. cap. 33) dwelling 
upon the Celtiberian weapons.* ' They had two-edged Swords 
of well-tempered steel ; besides their daggers, a span long, to be 
used at close quarters. They make weapons and iron in an 
admirable manner, for they bury their plates so long under- 
ground as is necessary to eat away the weaker part ; and, there- 
fore, they use only that which is firm and strong. Swords and 
other weapons are made of this prepared steel ; and these are 
so powerful in cutting, that neither shield nor helm nor bone 
can withstand them.' Plutarch * repeats this description, which 
embodies the still prevalent idea concerning the Damascus 
(Persian) scymitar and the Toledo rapier. Swedenborg* intro- 
duces burial among the different methods of making steel; 
and Beckmann, following Thunberg, declares that the process 
is still used in Japan. 

General A. Pitt-Rivers' collection has two Swords from Spain. 
The first is a bronze, sub-leaf-shaped, with a thin protracted 
point The length is twenty-one inches ; the breadth at the 
swell two inches, thinning near the handle to one inch and a 
quarter ; the tang is broken, and there are two rivet-holes at 
the shoulder, which is two inches wide. The other, which the owner calls a * Kopis,' 
also twenty-one inches long, and two inches and a half in width, has a broad 
back and a wedge-section. The cutting part is inside, and the whole contour 
remarkably resembles the Kukkri or Korah of Nepaul, and, in a less degree, the 
Albanian Yataghan and the Kabyle ' Flissa.' The Kopis, however, has a hook- 
handle as if for suspension ; and there is a swelling in the inside of the gfrip. 

*As the Celtiberians,' continues Diodorus, 'are furnished with two Swords, 
(probably espada y daga\ * the horsemen, when they have routed their opponents, 
dismount, and, joining the foot, fight as its auxiliaries.* The Lusitanians, most 
valiant of the race, inhabited a mountain-land peculiarly rich in minerals. Justin ^ 
speaks of the gold, copper, lead, and vermilion, which last named the ' Minho ' 



Fig. 386. — Blade and 
Handle op Bronzb 
WITH Part op Eaclb 
(KesselX 



* See chap, vi, 
» De Ferrot i. 195. 



« De Garrul 



^ Lib. xliv. 3. Martial also alludes (i. 49 ; iii. 12, 
&c.) to the metallic wealth of his native province. 



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266 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



river. Of the iron he says : * It is of an extraordinary quality, but their water is 
more powerful than the iron itself; for the metal being tempered in it becomes 
keener ; nor is any weapon held in esteem among them that has not been dipt in 
the Bilbilis or the Chalybs/ * Strabo * represents Iberia as abounding in metal, 
and arms the Lusitanians with poniard and dagger, probably meaning dirk and 
knife. 

The Northern neighbours of the Celtiberians — the warlike old Keltic ' Gauls 
— were essentially swordsmen : they relied mainly upon the Claidab.* When they 
entered Europe they had already left behind them the Age of 
Stone ; and they made their blades of copper, bronze, and iron. 
The latter, as we learn from history, entered into use during the 
fourth or fifth century B.C., the later Celtic Period, as it is called 
by Mr. Franks. The material appears to have been, according to 
all authorities, very poor and mean. The blade was mostly two- 
edged, about one m^tre long, thin, straight, and without point {sine 
mucrone) \ it had a tang for the attachment of the grip, but no 
g^ard or defence for the hand. 

Yet their gallantry enabled the Gauls to do good work with 

these bad tools. F. Camillus, the dictator,* seeing that his enemy 

cut mostly at head and shoulders, made his Romans wear light 

helmets, whereby the Machairae-blades were bent, blunted, or 

broken. Also, the Roman shield being of wood, he * directed it 

for the same reason to be bordered with a thin plate of brass* 

(copper, bronze T), He also taught his men to handle long pikes, 

which they could thrust under the enemy's weapons. Dionysius Halicarnassus 

introduces him saying, while he compares Roman and Gaulish arms, that these 

Kelts assail the foe only with long lances and large knives (jmxat'pa^ KoiriBei) * 



Fig. 287. — Gallic 
Sword OF Bronzb 



* Pliny (xxxi. 4, 41) also notices the Salo or 
River Bilbilis (Xalon) ; and the Celtiberian town of 
the same name, now Bombola, the birthplace of the 
poet Martial, is near Calatayud (Kala*at el-Yahiid -■ 
Jew's Fort), or Job's Castle. Of the Chalybes I 
have already spoken. 

* RonuM Archaology^ by Angelo Maio. 

* The words K^Atoi, roX^roi, TcCaXo (meaning 
Armati, pugnaces, Kampfer, fighters), evidently derive 
not from Coille, a word, but from the old word Gal 
(battle), Gala (arms). The name suited their natures ; 
they were never at peace, and their bravery was pro- 
verbial : the Greeks called it KcATix^y Opitros ^ Keltic 
daring. 

* Cladibas or Ciadias^gladius. I have noticed 
the shape when speaking of the Hallstadt finds. 

» Polysenus, Sirategemaia *, Dion. Halicar. xiv. 
chap. 13. 

* Plutarch {De Cam, cap. xxvii.) also arms the 
Gauls, when attacking the Capitol, with the Kopis. 
*The first to oppose them was Manlius 



Meeting two enemies together, he parried the cut of 
one who raised a Kopis {KtnrtBa) by hacking off his 
right hand with a Gladius* (|f^f). I presume that 
* Kopis * is here used for the pugio^ dirk, or shorter 
sword. Borghesi (Euvrts Computes^ voL ii. pp. 337- 
387, sa3rs : ' In use and form, in grip and in breadth 
of blade, the Kopis much resembles our Sciabla^ 
(Sabre).* But its comparison with the felx and 
pruning hook and a medal of Pub. Carisius suggest 
a substantial difference : while the broadsword is 
edged on the convex side, the Kopis had a sharpened 
concave. Count Gozzadini, like General A. Pitt- 
Rivers, compares the Kopis with the Khanjar or 
Yataghan, and quotes Xenophon {Cytpp, ii. I, 9 ; 
vi. 2, 10) to prove that it was peculiar to Orientals. 
I have traced the word to the Egyptian Khopsh or 
Khepsh, and repeat my belief that it is the old Nilotic 
sickle-blade with a flattened curve. But, as might 
be expected in the case of so old a word, the weapon 
to which it was applied may have greatly varied in 
size and shape. 



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THE SWORD OF THE OLD GAULS. 267 

of sabre shape (?). This was shortly before his defeating and destroying Brennus 
and the Senonian * Gauls, who had worsted the Romans (b.c. 390) on the fatal 
dies Alliensis? and who had captured all the capital save the Capitol. 

The Gauls of Caesar's day* had large iron mines which they worked by 
tunnelling ; their ship-bolts were of the same material, and they made even chain- 
cables of iron. They had by no means, however, abandoned the use of bronze 
arms. Pausanias ^ also speaks of raU fiaxaipdi'f t&v TaXar&v. Diodorus * notes 
that the Kelts wore ' instead of short straight Swords (^i<f>ovs), long broad blades 
(jjMKpas airdOas *), which they bore obliquely at the right side hung by iron and 
copper chains. . . . Their Swords are not smaller than the Saunions (aavvicdv ^) 
of other nations, and the points of their Saunions are bigger than those of their 
Swords.' Strabo • also makes the Gauls wear their long Swords hanging to the right 
Procopius,® on the other hand, notices that the Gallic auxiliaries of Rome wore the 
Sword on the left*® According to Poseidonius," the Gauls also carried a dagger 
which served the purpose of a knife, and this may have caused some confusion in 
the descriptions. 

Q. Claudius Quadrigarius in Aulus Gellius," noticing the 'monomachy' of 
Manlius Torquatus with the Gaul, declares that the latter was armed with two 
gladii. Livy describes the same duel in his best style. The Roman, of middling 
stature and unostentatious bearing, takes a footman's shield and girds on a 
Spanish Spatha— arms fit for ready use rather than show. The big Gaul, another 
Goliah, glittering in a vest of many colours, and in armour stained and inlaid with 
gold, shows barbarous exultation, and thrusts out his tongfue in childish mockery. 
The friends retire and leave the two in the middle space, ' more after the manner 
of a theatrical show than according to the law of combat* The enormous 
Northerner, like a huge mass threatening to crush what was beneath it, stretched 
forth his shield with his left hand and planted an ineffectual cut of the Sword with 
loud noise upon the armour of the advancing foe. The Southron, raising his 

> Brennus is evidenUy a congener of the Welsh could hardly be thrown. Meyrick and Jahns (p. 390) 

brenhin (the king). The Senones have left their name do not solve the difficulty, 
in Illyrian Segna, once a nest of pirates and corsairs, ■ Lib. iv. 4, § 3. 

south of Fhime the Beautiful. I shall notice them • De Bell, Pen, 

in a future page. *• TheNorthumberland Stone in Montfaucon (vol. 

* Livy, xxii. 46. iv. part I, p. 37) shows a Gaul wearing sword and 
' Bell, GalL iii. 13 ; vii. 22. dagger on either side. 

* Lib. X. cap. 32. " In Athenaeus, lib. xiv., the celebrated philo- 
' Lib. V. cap. 30. sopher called the Apamaean or the Rhodian, a 

* See chapters viii. and xii. Here the word is contemporary of Pompey and Cicero, left, amongst 
evidently applied generically to a straight two-edged other works, one called tix^ toictiic^ {de Acie in- 
broadsword, about I mhre long. In the Middle Ages struenda), 

the weapon gave rise to many curious varieties, as " lib. vii. cap. 10. It is evident that the Duello 

the Spatha pennata and the Spatha in Juste, did not, as many authors suppose, arise with the 

' According to Vegetius (ii. 15) the Saunion was Kelts. All we can say is that they may have origi- 

the light javelin of the Samnites, with a shaft 3 J feet nated in Europe the sentiment dilled pundonor and 

long, and an iron head measuring 5 inches. Thus it the practice of defending ft with the armed hand, 

would resemble the Roman pilum. But Diodorus The idea was unknown to the classics ; and, with 

evidently means another and a heavier weapon which the exception, perhaps, of the Arabs, it is still ignored 



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268 THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 

Sword-point, after pushing aside the lower part of the enemy's shield with his own, 
closed in, insinuating his whole body between the trunk and arms of his adversary, 
and by two thrusts, delivered almost simultaneously at belly and groin, threw his 
opponent, who when prostrate covered a vast extent of ground. The gallant 
victor offered no indignity to the corpse beyond despoiling it of the torques^ which, 
though smeared with blood, he cast around his neck. 

Polybius,* recounting the battle at Pisae, where Aneroestes, king of the Gaesatae,* 
aided by the Boii, the Insubres, and the Taurisci (Noricans, Styrians), was de- 
feated by C. Atilius (A.U.C. 529=3.0. 225), shows the superiority of the Roman 
weapons. He describes the Machairae of the Gauls * as merely cutting blades 
. . . altogether pointless, and fit only to slash from a distance downwards : these 
weapons by their construction soon wax blunt, and are bent and bowed ; so that 
a second blow cannot be delivered until they are straightened by the foot' The 
same excellent author,' when describing the battle of Cannae (b.c. 216), tells us 
that Hannibal and his Africans were armed like Romans, with the spoils of the 
preceding actions ; while the Spanish and Gaulish auxiliaries had the same kind 
of shield, but their Swords were wholly unequal and dissimilar. While the Spanish 
Xiphos was excellent both for cutting and thrusting, the long and pointless 
Gallic Machaera could only slash from afar. Livy ^ also notices the want of point 
and the bending of the soft and ill-tempered Keltic blades. 

When Lucius Manlius attacked the Gauls, B.C. 181, the latter carried long flat 
shields, too narrow to protect the body.' They were soon left without other 
weapons but their Swords, and these they had no opportunity of using, as the 
enemy did not come to close quarters. Phrensied with the smart of missiles rain- 
ing upon their large persons, the wounds appearing the more terrible from the 
black blood contrasting with the white skin ; and furious with shame at being put 
hors de combat by hurts apparently so small, they lost many by the Swords of the 
Velites. These * light bobs ' in those days were well armed ; they had shields 
three feet long, pila for skirmishing, and the Gladius Hispanus^ which they drew 
after shifting the javelins to the left hand. With these handy blades they rushed 
in and wounded faces and breasts, whilst the Gallic Swords could not be wielded 
without space. 

Passing from books to monuments, we see on an Urban medal of Rimini, dating 
from the domination of the Senones, a long-haired and moustachioed Gaul, and on 
the reverse a broad Spatha, with scabbard and chain. This is repeated on another 
coin of the same series, where a naked Gaul, protected by an oblong shield, assails 

by the civilised Orientals of our day, especially by guisarnUy gisarme^ &c The Gaesum probably had a 

the Moslems. kind of handle and a defence for the hand. 

» Lib. ii. caps. 28, 30, and 33. • Lib. xxii. cap. 46. 

* Simply meaning Spearmen. Gaisate=^z^/a/t^ ^ Lib. xxxviii. 21. 

from Gaisa {^asutn\ the Irish ^, any spear. Isidore * The naked bodies and narrow shields are well 

{Gloss,) translates 'Gessum ' by *hasta vel jaculum shown in the battle-scene on the Triumphal Arch of 

Gallic^, iSoX/f.* The word survives in the French Orange (Jahns, Plate 29). 



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THE SWORD OF THE OLD GAULS. 269 

with the same kind of Sword. A third shows the Gaul with two gladii^ one shorter 
than the other.* The scabbards and chains were of bronze or iron. 

According to Diodorus,* the Gauls advanced to battle in war-chariots {carpentum^ 
covinusy essedum). They also had cavalry;' but during their invasions of Italy 
they mostly fought on foot They had various kinds of missiles, javelins, and the 
Cateia or Caia (boomerang, or throwing-club), slings, and bows and arrows, 
poisoned as well as unpoisoned. They then rushed to the attack with unhelm'd 
heads, and their long locks knotted on the head-top. In many fights they stripped 
themselves, probably for bravado, preserving only the waistcloth and ornaments, 
torques, leglets, and armlets. They cut off the heads of the fallen foes ; slung them 
to their shields or saddlebows, and kept them at home as trophies, still the practice 
of the Dark Continent Their girls and women fought as bravely as the men ; 
especially with the contus or wooden pike, sharpened and fire-hardened. The 
waggons ranged in the rear formed a highly efficient * lager.' The large Keltic 
stature, their terrible war-cries, and their long Swords wielded by doughty arms 
and backed by stout hearts, enabled them more than once to triumph over civilised 
armies. 

Divus Caesar, who is severe upon Gallic nobilitas^ levitaSy and infirmitas animi^ 
empl6yed nine years in subduing Gaul (B.C. 59-50). Before a century elapsed, the 
people had given up their old barbarous habits and costume, their fur-coats, like the 
Slav and Afghan posHn^ with sleeves opening in front ; their saga-cloaks or tartan- 
plaids^ which were probably imitations of the primeval tattoo;* their copper torques 
and their rude chains and armlets. Gallia Comata shore her limed and flowing locks, 
and Gallia Bracchata (Provincia, Provence) doffed the * truis^ (trews or trowsers) which 
were strapped at the waist and tied in at the ankles.* Their women adopted Roman 
fashions, and forgot all that Ammianus Marcellinus had said of them : * A whole troop 
of foreigners could not withstand a single Gaul, if he called to aid his wife, who is 
usually very strong and blue-eyed, especially when, swelling her neck, gnashing her 
teeth, and whirling her sallow arms of enormous bulk, she begins to strike blows, 
mingled with kicks, as if they were so many missiles sent from the string of a 
catapult' Of their old and rugged virtue we may judge by the tale of Ortiagon's 
gallant wife and the caitiff centurion.^ Thus Gaul was thoroughly subdued by 

' Borghesi (Tonini's Rimini^ &c, p. 28 and • The first use of tattooing was to harden the 

Tables A 3 and B 6) makes one of these gladii a skin, a defence against weather. The second (and 

'Kopis.' this we still find throughout Africa) was to distinguish 

s Lib. V. cap. 30. nations, tribes, and families. 
^^ * . .,.«.,.. * * G^^* bracchas deposuerunt et latum clavum 

• The cavalry was organised in the Tnmarkisia ^^^.^^^^ Diodorus Sic. (v. 30) has /3^«; in 
(three marka, or horses) composed of the « honestior ' j^^^^ 3^^, . j„ j^^j^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ 
(afterwards the knight), and the clients (squires). The ^^^^ 'breech-es ' or « Breek-s ' is a double plural ; 
host that attacked HeUas, under Brennus, had 20,400 , ^^^^ . ^ej^g ^,,^ pj^^ ^^ ^^ ^ S. Mv, a brogue, 
horsemen to 752.000 foot ^^^ ^^ other old writers mistranslate the braccha 

* The pattern is almost universal. Moorcroft found by plaid, or upper garment Jahns more justly renders 
it in the Himalayas, and I bought * shepherd's plaid ' sagum by plaid (p. 431). 

in Unyamwed, Central Africa. » Livy, xxxviii. 24. 



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270 



THE BOOK OF THE SWORD. 



Roman civilisation and the Latin tongue ; she contributed to literature her quotum 
of poets and rhetoricians ; her cities established schools of philosophy, and she saw 
nothing to envy in Gallia Togata — Upper Italy.* 

The Alemanni or Germans (Germani) east of the Rhine inhabited, at the time 
of the Roman conquests, a dismal land of swamps and silva : even in the present 
day a run from Hamburg to Berlin explains the ancient exodus of tribes bent 
upon conquering the * promised lands * of the south, and the 
modem wholesale emigration to America. These *warmen' 
were formerly surpassed by the Gauls in bravery,* but they had 
none of the Keltic levity or instability. The national character- 
istic was and is the steadfast purpose. Till lately the German 
Empire was a shadowy tradition ; yet the Germans managed 
to occupy every throne in Europe save two. They never yet 
made a colony, yet cuckoo-like they hold the best of those made 
by others ; and their sound physical constitution, strengthened 
by gymnastics, enables them to resist tropical and extreme 
climates better than any European people save the Slavs and 
the Jews. In the great cities of the world they occupy the first 
commercial place, the result of an education carefully adapted 
to its end and object ; and their progress in late years seems to 
promise ' Germanism ' an immense future based upon the ruins 
of the neo- Latin races. 

We have the authority of Tacitus for the fact that the 
Germans of his day did not (like the Kelts) * affect the short 
straight sword : ' rari . . . gladiis utuntur.' ^ The national weapon 
was the spear* of a peculiar kind ; *hastas vel ipsorum vocabulo 
frameas gerunt angusto et brevi ferro.' The derivation of the 
word and the nature of the weapon are still undetermined.* Modem authorities 
hold the oXAtsXframie to have been a long spear, with a head of stone, copper, bronze, 
or iron, shaped like a Palstab or an expanding * Celt ; ' and Demmin ^ shows the 
same broad shovel-shaped base in the Abyssinian lance. It was either thrown 
or thrust, and the weapon must not be confounded with the enormous hasten of 



Fic a88. — Found at 
Augsburg (66 centi- 
metres long. In Big- 
maringen Museum). 



> Italy has declared herself Una, Bui without 
considering a multitude of origins, one for almost 
every province, she is peopled in our modem day by 
two races, contrasting greatly with each other. The 
Po is the frontier, dividing the Groeco-Latin Italians 
to the south from the Gallic and Prankish Italians 
(Milanese, Piedmontese, &c.) to the north. The 
latter, originally Barbari, are the backbone of the 
modem kingdom : the Southerners are the weak point 

« Bell, GaU, vi. 24. 

* Jahns (in his Plates 27-30) unites * Kelten und 
Germanien, Germanien und Kelten.' 

* De Mor, Germ,^ cap. 6. 

* So we find the god Tyr or Tuisco (regent of 



Tuesday), the Monthu or Mars of the North, figured 

in the Runes as a barbed spear ^ (resembling the 

planetary emblem of Mars. He afterwards became 

the Sword-god. From the Tyr-rune is derived ^j^ 

Er («h6ru, the sword), or Aer, which resembles the 
Greek ftop, and which Jacob Grimm connects with 
"kfrni^ as and Eisen (Jahns, p. 14). 

• The older derivation is ixoxsa ferrea, Jahns (p. 
407) gives a host of others — Bram (thorn, bramble) ; 
PfrUm (punch, awl) ; Bramt (a border, edging) ; 
ramen (to aim, strike), &c, &c. 

' Armsy &c, p. 419. 



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THE OLD GERMAN SWORD, 



271 



Tacitus,' in whose day the Roman spear was fourteen feet long. It was a formid- 
able weapon ; those who knew it spoke with awe of * illam cruentam victricemque 
frameam ' ; and the Germans long preserved the saying * one spear is worth two 
Swords.' Yet, strange to say, it is rarely found in graves, where the throwing- 
axe of stone and bronze, pierced or unpierced, one-edged or two-headed (7ri\sKvs 
dfi<t>iaT6fio9, bipennis), is so common. 

In time the word fratnea was apparently applied to wholly 
different weapons. Thus Augustinus makes it an equivalent 
ol spatha or rhomphaia\ and Johannes de Janua ('Glossary') 
explains it as 'glaive aigu d'une part, et d'autre esp^e.' 

Iron, according to Tacitus,* was known to the Germans, but 
was not common. His statement is supported by ' finds * in the 
old tumuli and stone rings, known as Riesenmauer, Hiinnen- 
ringe,* Teufelsgraben, Burgwalle, and others. The myths of 
giants, dwarfs, and serpents suggest an Eastern origin for the 
metal. Bronze blades, on the other hand, are common. A typical 
specimen from the Elbe valley in the Klemm collection is thus 
described by Jahns.* The whole weapon is 23*2 5 centimetres 
long, the blade being i8'S, with a maximum breadth of 
I '62 5. The shape is conical, tapering to the point ; a high and 
rounded midrib is subtended on either side by a deepened line 
which runs to the end. Between shoulders and blade the front 
view shows on either side a crescent-shaped notch. The grip 
is narrower at the middle, where there is a long oval slit for 
making fast the handle ; and there are two rivet holes on either 
side of the shoulders, whence the midrib springs. It shows no 
pommel, the place being taken by a shallow crutch. 

Iron Swords are rare : even in the second century B.C., when 
the Romans had given up the softer metal, the Gauls and 
Germans preserved it. This is especially noticed when Ger- 
manicus marched against Arminius, B.C. 15;* and as late as the 
days of Tacitus, Germany could not work the raw metal.^ Remains of iron Spathce 
have mostly been found in very bad condition ; the material also is poor and 
badly made. The Held or champion used two kinds of blades ; and the m^tre-long 
two-edged German Sword is not to he distinguished from that of the Kelts. The 
Spatha was especially affected by three tribes: the Suardones (Sworders?), the 
Saxones (Daggermen) ^ and the Cherusci ; in process of time it reached the Goths,* 



Fig. 989.— Bkonzb. 

75 centimetres long : 
Pommels of bronze and 
bone. From Hallstadt 
Diggings. 



* AnnalSf ii. cap. 14. » De Mor, G, cap. 6. 

* The sUendysser of Denmark, dolmens of 
France, and cromlechs of England. 

* P. 416, PL xxviii. 4. In p. 417 he gives a list 
of many bronze^finds. 

* Tacit. Annals, ii. 14. 



' Cap. 42 and 6. 

' So the Longobards may be Long-halberts, and 
the Franks Francisca-men. 

' Vegetius (ii. 15) makes them use * gladii majores 
quas Spathas vocant,' and Isidore (68, 6) says that 
the gladii were ' utraque parte acuti.' 



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THE BOOK OF THE SWORD, 




and at last wafan (weapon) applied only to the